Despite agreed fixed prices for electricity and gas, the provider ExtraEnergie would like to increase the prices. What bothers the consumer center NRW. The matter ends up in court. Result? The provider must continue to deliver at the contractually agreed prices.
You have to look closely at your contract for gas and electricity. Especially those with a price guarantee. Because all too many energy suppliers are flirting with breaking their price guarantee promise and are still raising prices. However, the energy supplier may only increase the price components over which he has no influence. This does not include drastically increased procurement costs.
The provider "ExtraEnergie" also had to experience this. Because despite agreed fixed prices for electricity and gas, he wanted to increase the prices. The provider had offered a fixed price with so-called limited price guarantees. This means that only price changes due to increased taxes, levies or surcharges are permitted - but not, as planned, due to rising costs for the procurement of energy. For this price security, you usually pay a little more in the tariff than for a comparable offer without a price guarantee. The NRW consumer advice center considered the price increase to be inadmissible and sent a warning. But "ExtraEnergie" was unreasonable, which is why the matter ended up at the Düsseldorf Regional Court.
With a decision of August 26, the District Court of Düsseldorf has now approved the application of the consumer advice centre. This means that the provider is not allowed to announce price increases for electricity and gas due to rising procurement costs on the wholesale market if the contracts contain a price guarantee that also includes procurement prices. The provider must therefore continue to deliver at the contractually agreed prices.
The decision of the court (Az.: 12 O 247/22) protects all customers of "ExtraEnergie" GmbH, according to the consumer center. This also includes the brands "prioenergie" and "HitEnergie", which each offer electricity and gas products. Affected parties should object to both the price increase and the change in terms and conditions and demand further delivery at the agreed conditions. The consumer advocates provide this sample letter for this purpose.
