The electricity company Velkommen must reach into its pockets after a case was decided in the Maritime and Commercial Court on Tuesday.
The judgment orders Velkommen to repay, with interest, the 800 kroner that the company has charged a number of customers in the period from August 2020 to the end of September 2023, because they withdrew from a variable electricity price agreement before the agreed binding period of six months had expired.
The Electricity Supply Act states that such a fee may not be charged when a consumer switches to another electricity supplier.
Velkommen has explained that the so-called buy-back amount of 800 kroner was to cover the loss that the company would suffer in connection with the termination of the agreement. However, according to the court, it is not legal to charge a standard amount in this way. Any compensation must be based on the direct loss that the company has suffered from the individual customer.
A survey and appraisal has subsequently shown that the average loss per terminated customer is much smaller - partly because the court does not believe that the costs of obtaining a new customer can be included in the calculation.
In addition to repaying the illegally collected amounts - with interest - Velkommen must also pay the legal costs of DKK 175,262.50.
Received an order from the Consumer Ombudsman
In 2022, the Consumer Ombudsman assessed that four electricity companies violated the rules by charging fees of between DKK 800 and 1,500 from consumers who wanted to withdraw from a variable electricity price agreement.
The companies were therefore requested to repay the fees in September 2023. Two companies did not agree with the assessment and continued to charge the fees anyway. They were subsequently ordered by the Consumer Ombudsman to stop the practice, which one of the companies did.
The other company, Velkommen, did the same, but at the same time demanded that the order be brought before the Maritime and Commercial Court to have it verified by a third party.
/ritzau/
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