Energy: nothing but a free market, for gas increase and speculation
Yesterday the Antitrust defined what is happening in the energy sector as a real tsunami, to the detriment of users. A hurricane of misconduct, abuse, violations and outright speculation, which resulted in over 1 billion euros of damage caused to families and businesses. Federconsumatori has denounced on several occasions, during the most difficult period for families, supplier companies have profited from energy costs. And they continue to do so.
As an association, we continually receive, at our branches, reports of citizens who have had their bills charged at unreasonable and completely out-of-market costs. After having repeatedly denounced the practices of Enel, which, in some contracts, applied a fixed fee of 144 euros per year and a cost per cubic meter of 2.43 euros (resulting in an expense for an average family of 3,546 euros per year) , today the absolute record was achieved by Wekiwi.
The unfortunate users who signed a contract with this company were sent bills with a fixed amount of 160 euros per year, to which is added the record figure of 5.29 euros per cubic meter. This means that, for the consumption of a typical family of 1,400 cubic meters, the annual expense for gas would amount to 7,566 euros per year. A figure that differs from the average costs applied on the market by as much as 6,862 euros more per year.
The abolition of the protected market and the unconditional green light to the free market should have guaranteed, according to the promises, greater competition. According to the recorded conduct, it only emerges that price increases have been liberalized. Furthermore, in the absence of an information campaign aimed at citizens (in the gas sector as well as in the electricity sector), to better deal with the transition to the free market and to know how to protect themselves from abuses of this type.
Increases of this magnitude are beyond any logic and beyond any tolerance threshold: they must be sanctioned but above all inhibited. This is why we are initiating pilot lawsuits and injunction actions in this sense, to ensure that these abuses do not go unpunished and that the companies involved pay for their unscrupulous conduct.
It is also necessary for Antitrust and Arera to carefully monitor such behavior: by monitoring price determination mechanisms and dangerous speculative phenomena that risk leading to an upward alignment.
It is urgent and essential to put at least a price ceiling on the free market, otherwise, at this rate, it risks becoming the market of free abuse.
Tags: free market increased gas speculation
