In times of energy crisis, bills increase. The same applies to French disputes with their electricity or gas suppliers, according to the report of the national energy mediator for the year 2021, made public on Tuesday May 24.. “The very significant increases in energy prices have also aggravated the precarious situation of a certain number of consumers”, observes the holder of the function, Olivier Challan Belval.
In 2021, fourteen years after the opening of the energy market for individuals, the mediator received 30,626 disputes – which represents an increase of 13% compared to 2020 and… 150% compared to 2016. half of these disputes resulted in formal referrals. Of these, 9,959 were deemed admissible. That’s 16% more year-over-year.
The first explanation is of an economic nature: the health containment measures taken as part of the fight against Covid-19, in 2020, have “in particular made it impossible to read non-communicating meters”. Also, in 2021, “the consumption of the corresponding periods were sometimes underestimated, which generated catch-ups during the readings of actual consumption and led to disputes”.
The symptomatic case of E.Leclerc energies
The independent public authority also refers to “questionable practices”, in particular from certain alternative suppliers, competitors of EDF for electricity or Engie (formerly GDF Suez) for gas. Themselves “weakened” by soaring energy prices on the wholesale market, “several suppliers have attempted to resort to practices that are not very respectful of their customers: price increases despite contracts signed at fixed prices over a fixed period, modification of the price indexation formula, suspension of offers without offering to their customers of reasonable alternative solutions, etc. “.
The case of E.Leclerc Energies is symptomatic. He first planned to replace his initial offer with another with dynamic pricing, that is to say indexed to market oscillations. Finally, the brand backed by the supermarket chain ceased all activity in the fall of 2021. Charges its customers to go and quickly sign another contract elsewhere.
“The behavior observed over the past few months seems to lead me to question the conditions for issuing energy supply permits”, believes Mr. Challan Belval. In addition“the persistent increase in disputes in mediation no longer makes it possible to formulate all the recommendations within the regulatory time limit of three months”. During the financial year studied, it took an average of one hundred and seven days, compared to seventy in 2019.
You have 37.08% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.