Former customers of the electricity company Velkommen and its subsidiary Nettopower have complained that they have had difficulty getting their receivables paid.
A week ago, the Danish Electricity Authority ordered the companies to immediately pay all outstanding amounts to former customers. Now, the companies have also been granted a three-month quarantine at the request of the Danish Electricity Authority. The quarantine means that they will not be able to acquire new electricity customers during the three months. Energinet wrote this in a press release on Monday.
The Danish Electricity Authority carried out a targeted inspection of the companies after they had received a number of inquiries from consumers. During the inspection, it was found that in the vast majority of cases the companies had been too slow to pay out customers' receivables.
Many delays in payment
At Velkommen, late payment had occurred in at least 3192 of the 3470 cases, and at Nettopower it had occurred in 2969 of 3003 cases.
- This is a very large number of offences in an area where the rules are otherwise reasonably simple, said the Director of the Danish Electricity Supply Authority, Carsten Smidt, in a press release on 14 April.
- That is why we are now taking action with a relatively strict order that the two companies ensure that all their former customers are immediately paid out their rightful receivables.
The rules state that as an electricity customer you are entitled to a final settlement - no later than four weeks after you has changed supplier.
Any receivable must be paid at the same time as the final settlement.
In addition to the closed cases, the review also showed that many customers still had not received their receivables.
The Danish Utilities Authority will carry out a follow-up inspection at a later date to determine whether the companies are complying with the rules.
Velkommen owner acknowledges
Lars Hein, co-owner of Velkommen, acknowledges in a written comment that the pace of payments has not been good enough. On the other hand, he is surprised to be given a quarantine at this time.
- We are in the process of complying with the order before the deadline of April 28 and are surprised that the quarantine has come into effect before we have had the opportunity to comply with it, he says.
- We will now spend the next three months completing the new system and ensuring that the final payments are made.
/ritzau/
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