Dusseldorf The low-cost electricity providers Stromio and Gas.de are already faced with two private class action lawsuits. The legal techs Rightnow and Veneko want to sue the energy suppliers for damages, which had terminated hundreds of thousands of consumers in December. Both companies plan to pool the claims of thousands of ex-customers.
The company told the Handelsblatt that more than 25,000 interested parties had registered with the Düsseldorf-based Rightnow Group within two weeks for a class action lawsuit. Legal Tech wants to “file the first lawsuits by the end of March” and “bundle several thousand claims in one lawsuit,” said the lawyer and Rightnow co-founder Benedikt Quarch.
Rightnow is best known for its low-threshold reimbursement offers for customers of fitness centers, airlines and private health insurance companies. Now the company could lift the largest private lawsuit against Stromio and Gas.de.
In return, one will buy the customers’ potential claims, explains managing director Phillip Eischet. They received an “immediate compensation” and would then no longer have anything to do with the controversial energy discounters. According to its own statements, Rightnow has already paid out a good 500 customers and taken over their claims.
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“On average, customers receive 80 to 100 euros,” says Eischet. Depending on the energy consumption and the remaining contract period, the sum could also be significantly higher. The amount is thus well below the potential damage to ex-customers. Rightnow pays in advance for this and bears the full risk of enforcing the claims. The offer to customers is calculated using up to 25 criteria, such as energy consumption, the remaining term of the contract and a possible comparative offer from the discounter.
Claims in the millions against Stromio, Gas.de and Grünwelt Energie
Ex-customers with a long remaining contract term could try to claim higher damages after this period. However, Eischet assumes that the unusual interdependence of the discounters through several parent companies will prevent many potential plaintiffs from bringing individual lawsuits: “With this company construct, it is questionable whether waiting will pay off.”
The law firm, which represents Stromio, Gas.de and Grünwelt Energie on media issues, said when asked about the class action lawsuits: “Since our clients are not aware of the planned lawsuits you are addressing, they cannot comment on them.” The companies regretted “that natural gas – and electricity supply contracts had to be terminated due to the historically unique price explosions on the energy market”.
Rightnow intends to “acquire a mid-single-digit million amount in claims against Stromio, Gas.de and Grünwelt Energie” in the next few weeks. From a risk perspective, “at some point we will have to say stop,” explains Managing Director Eischet. Because the situation is difficult to assess because there is little information about the companies of the energy company Ömer Varol.
Rightnow takes the customer “all the risk away” and does not act “according to the ‘no win, no fee’ principle,” says co-founder Quarch, referring to competitor Veneko, who was the first actor to announce a class action lawsuit against Stromio and Co. at the end of January had.
Veneko Managing Director Tobias Hirt hopes that thousands of bundled claims will give him “a better negotiating position”. Unlike Rightnow, Berlin-based Legal Tech only wants to pay out ex-customers if possible claims for damages have been enforced. Then Veneko demand a success fee of one third of the amount claimed.
More about Stromio:
Veneko cooperates with the consumer protection expert Matthias Moeschler. According to Moeschler, more than 7,000 potential buyers have registered on his blog “ Verbraucherhilfe-stromlieferer.de”. As soon as the registration for Veneko’s class action lawsuit has been activated in the next few days, he will inform you by email.
Most customers would have “dramatic additional costs”, especially for gas. In response to their claims for damages against Stromio and Gas.de, many received “no or very low comparative offers,” criticizes Moeschler. Stromio is “unfortunately not an isolated case”. Something is wrong with the energy market, he says. The economic damage caused by mass terminations by energy discounters is immense. “Many customers are desperate and don’t know how to pay the bills,” says Moeschler.
The legal pressure on Stromio, Gas.de and the common brand Grünwelt Energie is increasing, not only under civil law but also under criminal law. Preliminary investigations by the Düsseldorf public prosecutor’s office in the area surrounding the energy providers have been ongoing since January. The Federal Network Agency had asked the prosecution authority for a criminal assessment. According to the public prosecutor’s office, there is a suspicion that “residual amounts of energy may have been sold to wholesalers and not to customers”.
On Friday, the consumer advice center in Hesse announced a model declaratory action against Stromio. The consumer advocates expect at least a four-digit number of ex-customers of the electricity discounter who will join the model lawsuit. As soon as the register of complaints at the Federal Office of Justice is open, those affected can participate there.
More: After a wave of layoffs: the public prosecutor’s office initiates preliminary investigations into low-cost electricity providers