In response to accusations by ANPC, which fined the company for higher prices than the law, Enel Energie says that the legislation in the industry, although it has changed 20 times in the last two years, does not cover all situations. arising in supply activities. In addition, the company accuses government institutions of inconsistency, saying that NARE, the regulator in the industry, did not report violations of the law.

This comes after the National Authority for Consumer Protection (ANPC) earlier announced that it had fined Enel 1% of its turnover, or 52 million lei (10.4 million euros), for the electricity supplier’s overbilling of consumers at a price above the law.

Read about the violations ANPC found here.

“Enel Energie paid special attention to the application of legislative measures to support energy consumers, adopted by the authorities in recent years against the background of rising energy prices at the European level.

Thus, over the past two years or so, the company’s teams have made significant and sustained efforts to implement nearly 20 changes to the customer billing system to comply with multiple changes in primary and secondary energy legislation.

Since the legislation to which we refer, as it was adopted, does not cover all situations arising in the field of supply and consumption characteristics of all consumers, we have repeatedly asked for clarifications and held discussions with the bodies that coordinate and regulate our field of activity,” said Enel Energie representatives in response to HotNews.ro’s request.

All these steps have been aimed at clarifying the ways in which the various regulations or provisions that have come up are to be applied in order to ensure that customers are treated fairly and equitably.

After these discussions, they were adopted by the representatives of the relevant institutions in the field of electricity supply, including ways of applying the legislation in certain rare situations not expressly provided for by law.

Regarding the current situation, representatives of Enel Energie have been informed by ANPC that the Authority has received a series of 4 notifications.

“Therefore, for consumers who have a reading or self-reading of the index during the billing period, the average daily consumption for the period in which there is no reading is used to determine the total consumption, according to the current law. In the case of February, which has a small number of days, this average value is higher than for the other months, so for an extremely small number of customers it led to the next tranche of consumption. there were doubts about the index, we canceled the invoices and applied customer-friendly provisions.

These situations, although with a particularly low frequency, arose as a result of the application of legal norms, and the relevant institutions in our field of activity did not notice any aspect that would contradict them.

We regret to note that different government institutions interpret the legislation and other applicable provisions in the energy sector in different ways and cannot coordinate their activities to provide clarity to both customers and companies in this sector,” explains Enel.

The company has not yet received a decision on the imposition of sanctions, and it follows that after it arrives, it will be challenged in court.

“We maintain our commitment to engage in all consultations we are invited to with all relevant agencies to achieve consistency in the application of the ever-changing legal provisions to ensure a fair and transparent relationship with our customers. We expect the same openness from our institutional partners, who we believe have the same goals to protect clients, and we reserve the right to defend ourselves in the legal system against any misinterpretation of legal provisions. “, the managers of the utility company said.