L’Antitrust has opened an investigation into Enel Energy to ascertain any unfair commercial practices. The Competition and Market Authority (Agcm) has received reports relating to significant increases in bill of gas and electricity for the four-month period October 2023 – January 2024.
Costs quadrupled or quintupled compared to the past, without having received clear prior information on the contract renewal.
Investigation for unfair commercial practices
The Authority has therefore started an investigative procedure aimed at ascertaining the possible violation of the articles 20, 24 and 25 of the Consumer Code.
The intervention was decided after “numerous and continuous complaints (over 600) from individual consumers and micro-enterprises have arrived since January 2024, also through consumer associations, who complain of having received”, for the period above indicated October 2023 – January 2024 “bills containing a significant increase in the price of gas and electricity supplies compared to bills referring to the same time period in the previous year”.
Failure to communicate about contract renewal
Customers report «in addition to the difficulty of supporting quadrupled or quintupled disbursements compared to the past, that I have not received any prior information in written form (via e-mail or paper), from Enel Energia, regarding the contract renewal and that he was therefore unable to exercise the right of withdrawalnor choose a different supplier of energy”.
Some users report that they regularly receive invoices via email or on the app but that they have not received any communication of renewal of the economic conditions through the aforementioned channels.
Renewals in spam
In fact, there are customers who have found emails with the renewal communication in spam. And they believe that the e-mail messages were specifically packaged to be intercepted by the anti-spam filter, also due to the relevance of the graphic part, which lent itself to being interpreted as a mere promotional message and not as a document having a significant impact on the contract of supply.
Neither in the header nor in the textual part of the email was its subject highlighted (i.e., the change in economic conditions).
Codacons, actions for refunds
Codacons, as a consumer association, announces that, if the Antitrust ascertains irregularities, it will promote an action to ensure that users obtain “the refund of the greater sums paid in the bill as a result of incorrect or missed communications on tariff increases”.
Tags: Antitrust investigation Enel bill increases
