Dusseldorf The consumer advice center in Hesse is launching a model declaratory action against the energy discounter Stromio. The company from Kaarst terminated hundreds of thousands of customers retrospectively and without warning in December.
“Every company bears an economic risk. If you gamble, that’s Stromio’s problem and not that of its customers,” says Philipp Wendt, CEO of the Hesse consumer center in an interview with the Handelsblatt. The electricity provider acted illegally. That is why he is “very sure” that he will be successful in court.
Wendt expects a significant number of those affected and at least a four-digit number of customers to participate in the model lawsuit. “Any Stromio customer can contact us,” says Wendt.
The model declaratory action is the most severe measure that consumer centers can bring against corporations. They achieved their greatest success in the lawsuit against the car manufacturer VW. In the course of the emissions scandal, consumer advocates won a total of 750 million euros for more than 400,000 drivers, which was awarded as damages.
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In the case of Stromio, the consumer advice center in Hesse expects damages of between several hundred and 2,000 euros per customer. “Those affected were entitled to contract fulfillment and instead fell into the much more expensive alternative supply, and that is exactly what the amount of damage results from,” explains Wendt.
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Customers sometimes report to consumer advocates that electricity costs have tripled within a month. “We know of insolvencies of electricity providers. But we don’t know that the delivery is simply stopped and the contract terminated,” says Wendt.
Instead of filing for bankruptcy, in view of the record purchase prices on the energy exchanges, several electricity discounters either stopped delivering to many customers overnight or increased prices and advance payments in some cases by more than 500 percent.
Electricity is resold at record prices
Thousands of customers have already turned to law firms to file class action lawsuits against Stromio, the Handelsblatt reported. Last Tuesday, the Federal Network Agency also decided that the horrendous down payments by Rheinische Elektrizitäts- und Gasversorgungs GmbH were not compatible with energy law. “The risk of rising procurement prices must not be passed on to household customers by unilaterally increasing discounts,” said Jochen Homann, President of the Federal Network Agency.
The company, better known under the Immergrün brand, has so far not wanted to comment on this when asked. Should customers continue to be confronted with unjustified advance payments in the future, Immergrün is threatened with a fine of 100,000 euros.
Although the Cologne-based company is just one of many providers who are currently being criticized, the Federal Network Agency is currently not running any further proceedings. This was announced by a spokesman for the authority at the request of the Handelsblatt. “But of course we continue to monitor the market and can initiate supervisory procedures if we suspect systematic abuses”.
He did not want to rule out the possibility of further proceedings. With its decision, the Bonn authority has at least sent a clear signal as to when the limit is considered to be exceeded, according to industry circles.
Immergrün was one of the first providers to terminate their electricity contracts for thousands of customers in October last year. Similar to Stromio, Wunderwerk and other discounters, the reason given was the high procurement prices on the energy exchanges.
Unlike providers such as Enyway, Lition and Neckermann Strom, however, many did not announce bankruptcy, but rather turned their customers out and resold the electricity they had already bought at record prices, according to industry circles. Customers, on the other hand, ended up with the basic suppliers, where they sometimes had to pay three to four times as much.
EnBW also wants to sue the electricity discounter.
(Photo: dpa)
“We consider Stromio’s actions to be unacceptable and illegal,” said Volker Bloch, who is responsible for end customer business at EnBW. The Baden-Württemberg energy group had caught more than 40,000 Stromio customers. Because the additionally required electricity had to be bought at short notice at high prices, the Karlsruhe-based company now wants to sue the discounter for reimbursement of expenses.
Stromio passes the follow-up costs of a risk strategy on to customers and other market participants. Lawsuits against other providers are also not excluded, said a spokesman for the company.
Energy supplier Eon also sharply criticized the actions of the low-cost providers: “It shows no solidarity when discounters push customers with this market mechanism and then shirk responsibility,” said a spokesman for the company on request. That must have consequences. The Essen-based supplier is not currently planning a lawsuit, but expressly reserves the right to take legal action.
Discounters have it harder
Even before the record electricity prices, the business practices of cheap electricity providers had repeatedly made headlines. Teldafax, Flexstrom or most recently the Bavarian Energy Supply Company (BEV): The German electricity market is regularly shaken by spectacular bankruptcies that affect hundreds of thousands of customers. Nevertheless, low-cost providers with unsustainable, sometimes dubious business models continue to attract customers.
If the electricity prices remain at the high level, the discounters could have a hard time with their business model. Where large providers often hedge against price spikes with long-term contracts of one to two years, cheap electricity providers such as Immergrün now have a massive problem. They often buy electricity on the market at short notice and now have to pay record prices for it.
However, they can only pass this on to their customers to a limited extent, since in Germany mostly contractually fixed prices apply to consumers. With extraordinary price increases or horrific advance payments, according to the judgment of the Federal Network Agency, this should no longer be so easy to compensate.
This is only a small consolation for the affected Stromio customers. The consumer advice center Hessen will shortly submit its model declaratory action. Four to six weeks later, consumers can then enter themselves in a corresponding register of complaints.
“If it’s quick, we expect a judgment this year,” believes VZ Hessen boss Wendt. Until then, however, Stromio must also remain solvent. Otherwise the cheated customers will get nothing despite a successful lawsuit – as was the case recently with the big bankruptcy of the Bavarian energy supply company.
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