Energy suppliers have related to the state Energy price brakes After the start of the Ukrainian war almost four years ago, around 200 million euros were paid back to the state. That shared that Federal Cartel Office after a test procedure. In more than two thirds of the cases there were no concerns. In most other cases, these could be resolved through repayments, as the authority announced.
This sum therefore comes from cases in which payments were requested incorrectly or in excessive amounts. In total, the companies had applied for compensation payments of more than 25 billion euros.
During the Energy crisis in 2022 and 2023 the state had price caps for Natural gas, electricity and district heating introduced. These so-called energy price brakes were intended to protect consumers from extremely high costs. To ensure that the energy suppliers do not suffer financial losses due to the capped prices, they received compensation payments from the state.
“The audited suppliers behaved in accordance with the rules”
The Federal Cartel Office later checked whether all companies had applied these regulations correctly. The main issue was whether some suppliers had set their prices artificially too high in order to get more money from the state. For this reason, the Cartel Office initiated a total of 70 test procedures for gas, electricity and heat in 2023 and 2024. The companies audited include municipal utilities, energy company sales companies and energy discounters.
At 200 million euros, the amount of returns is also rather small. The volume of applications from energy suppliers amounted to more than 25 billion euros. “The high proportion of relief volumes that were not complained about also shows that the suppliers examined generally behaved in accordance with the rules,” said Cartel Office chief Andreas Mundt. According to the information, nine investigations are currently underway against four suppliers in the areas of natural gas and electricity.
