Dusseldorf The energy discounters Stromio, Gas.de and Grünwelt Energie are facing legal disputes. A legal tech company from Berlin and a Cologne lawyer want to claim damages from the electricity providers in different ways. The energy discounters from Kaarst near Düsseldorf suddenly terminated their customers in December. According to estimates, the resulting damage could be in the mid three-digit million range.
In December, the low-cost electricity providers Stromio and Gas.de as well as the joint Grünwelt Energie brand canceled their customers overnight. According to informed circles, more than a million customers are affected by these cancellations. This will be expensive for consumers. Because instead of discounter prices, they pay significantly more for basic services. Because of the expensive tariffs, the consumer advice center is taking action against three regional energy suppliers.
Stromio and Gas.de justify the terminations on request with “price explosions at the European energy trading centers” and price increases of “more than 400 percent compared to the previous year”. As a result, the general public was burdened with costs, the criticism from the industry reads: Basic suppliers have to buy electricity and gas at high cost, customers pay more expensive tariffs.
Legal tech against energy discounters
Tobias Hirt and Marek van Hattem now want to recoup these additional customer costs – in different ways. The Berlin legal tech company Veneko is currently preparing the first class action lawsuit against Stromio and Gas.de. Veneko Managing Director Tobias Hirt criticizes the cheap electricity providers: “They hope that the customers will do nothing and endure it.” Who about 100 euros financial damage, “if possible, do not hire your own lawyer”.
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The business economist Hirt wants to make a low-threshold offer to ex-customers of the energy discounter in order to claim their additional costs. For the class action, ex-customers must assign their possible claims for damages to Veneko. The company calculates the possible claim for damages and demands this from the electricity discounters. Because for the remaining term of the contract, customers would have a price guarantee from the discounter. If no out-of-court agreement is reached, Veneko will sue for damages, Hirt said.
There is no fee to join the class action lawsuit. However, a success fee of one-third will be due if the claims are enforced. Veneko shares this premium with Matthias Moeschler, with whom Hirt wants to claim damages from Stromio and Co. for the class action lawsuit. 4,400 ex-customers who are interested in a lawsuit for damages have already reported to Moeschler’s blog “Consumer Help for Electricity Providers”.
Damage in the middle three-digit range
Hirt estimates that the claims for many ex-customers in the gas sector could be over 1000 euros, he estimates the additional costs that can be enforced per Stromio ex-customer in the mid three-digit range. The decisive factor is the new tariff and the length of the remaining contract period. According to Hirt, there is a claim for damages for this period.
He does not believe that the discounters will voluntarily meet the demands of individual ex-customers. The Handelsblatt has received a comparative offer from Grünwelt Energie. An Ex-Gas customer estimates her damage at almost 1300 euros – she was offered around 140 euros as a comparison.
With a large number of claims, Veneko has “a better negotiating position,” says managing director Tobias Hirt. His company is currently working on an algorithm to be able to individually calculate the possible claims for damages of the individual customers. This should be completed in the next few weeks.
In March, Veneko will be able to calculate the claims for damages and collect them back from the discounters as quickly as possible. For ex-customers who still have a contract and a price guarantee until July or the end of the year, Veneko will report the prognostic damage. First of all, affected ex-customers would have to register with Veneko, says Hirt.
Lawyers see opportunities
Lawyers are trying to claim damages in individual cases. According to his own statements, the lawyer Marek van Hattem from the Cologne law firm Himmelreither represents 40 mandates from former Stromio and Gas.de customers. He received more written and telephone inquiries every day.
Van Hattem expects a three-digit number of mandates. He has already sent out the first letter of demand. “If there is no response, we generally recommend that all clients sue,” says van Hattem. The first lawsuits could reach the courts in early February.
The criticism of Gas.de and Stromio is growing. The Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries denounces “the business conduct of dubious low-cost providers”. Meanwhile, rumors are circulating in the industry about the reason for the layoffs.
Insiders consider it likely that Stromio and Gas.de could also have bought quantities in advance for a longer period of time. According to them, it would be obvious that these were sold wholesale instead of to the customers at high market prices. This is also supported by the fact that none of the companies has filed for bankruptcy to date. According to a “Spiegel” report, the Federal Network Agency is also investigating this suspicion.
Stromio and Gas.de reject these allegations as “false”. They had “ordered amounts of energy in the short to medium term” and were therefore “directly affected by the recent price explosions”, the companies said in a letter from a lawyer in response to a request from the Handelsblatt. However, the companies left unanswered how Stromio and Gas.de intend to deal with the claims for damages from their ex-customers.
Meanwhile, the public prosecutor’s office in Düsseldorf has initiated preliminary investigations against the energy provider. The authority checks whether there is initial suspicion after it has received a criminal complaint from an individual.
More: After a wave of layoffs: the public prosecutor’s office initiates preliminary investigations into low-cost electricity providers