Energy price reductions: AK and E-Control criticize the lack of transparency

2023-07-17 16:57:00

E-Control board member Wolfgang Urbantschitsch also criticized the communication of the energy suppliers in the Ö1 “Morgenjournal” as “anything but transparent”. AK energy price expert Christina Brichta-Hartmann demands from the energy suppliers price reductions in the existing contracts instead of offering new contracts and working with discounts or free energy days. With some providers, customers would also get the cheaper tariff without switching. The AK appeals to the energy suppliers “that they carry out classic, real price reductions in these existing contracts,” said Brichta-Hartmann on Monday in the Ö1 “Morgenjournal”.

E-Control board member Wolfgang Urbantschitsch also criticized the fact that the price reductions would often only take place with discounts or Fridays. That was “anything but transparent,” said the energy regulator in the “Morgenjournal”. “If this discount were to disappear again, then you would really come back to the high price. And that is also something that we at E-Control criticize. That means you have to see that the energy industry is now also trying to do more to get transparency in.”

“Large degree of legal uncertainty”

But there is also “a great deal of legal uncertainty at the moment as far as price changes are concerned”. It is not easy for companies to find a way “to adjust prices in a legally secure manner”. But that also depends on the contracts offered and the type of communication – companies have some catching up to do in adapting communication to individual customers.