– Impossible to tell how much customers have lost – E24

– We cannot understand that it is legal to continue like this. You cannot write that the pants cost 500 crowns, but when you pay, the price is 1000 crowns, says Inger Lise Blyverket, director of the VG Consumer Council.

Along with hundreds of Norwegians, you may have been fooled for several years into thinking you have the cheapest electricity deal, we must believe the Consumer Council.

On Tuesday, they complained to 29 power companies about price deception.

– We have revealed that utilities are simply fooling people with a type of agreement they call purchase price agreements. They are sold as ordinary spot deals, and these are the deals people are most often advised to choose, Blyverket tells VG.

READ ALSO: Action Alert Against Deceptive Power Agreements

In a spot price agreement, the customer pays the market price determined for the energy exchange, as well as a price surcharge per kilowatt hour. Sometimes there is also an additional surcharge per month. The price supplements are the benefits of the electricity supplier, according to the strømpris.no service of the Consumers Council.

According to Blyverket, the purchase price agreement is a kind of spot agreement where companies, in addition to the usual price supplements, also add a secret supplement.
– The problem with the agreements is that they establish a price with a surcharge of, say, five øre, while the actual surcharge is much higher, explains Blyverket.

Alarms: very difficult to detect

Raises the alarm on the scope of these agreements.

– In order to detect this, you must know the spot price, and then you must enter and verify. There are hardly any consumers who know what to look for here, explains the director, noting:

– You must be extremely vigilant in order to discover what constitutes the total price.

The Consumers Council fears that this is just the tip of the iceberg. The number of secret price premium deals is probably greater than they know, believe, and point out that they have not reviewed all local electrical deals.

– This is not something that utilities want to talk out loud about. Some companies have a little sentence very low in their terms where this is said, says Blyverket.

Destroy the competition

Electric companies Fjordkraft, Norges Energi and Agva Kraft are the three largest companies out of a total of 29 that are now complaining.

– Almost a third of the market players have this type of agreement. Even the two largest companies, Fjordkraft and NorgesEnergi, which like to present themselves as the serious alternatives, mislead customers in this way, says Blyverket.

She notes that Fjordkraft has five different types of price purchase agreements. She explains that her spot deal can quickly look like the cheapest on the market, when you add the surcharge to the bill, this doesn’t match the deal that was promised to the consumer first.

– This is also very destructive to the competition and makes it difficult for serious players to prevail.

Also read: Consumers Council warns of variable electricity prices and attractive offers

Requires major cleaning

The Consumer Council is now demanding that this practice cease, in which they believe customers are being misled into believing that the deals are much cheaper than they are.

– It is impossible to say how much consumers have lost from these deals, but we believe this has been going on for several years, Blyverket notes.

With the help of an external legal evaluation, they have determined that the agreements violate the Commercialization Law and the Right of Withdrawal Law.

– We expect a major cleanup in the electricity market. Not only does the practice help fool customers, it also makes it harder for serious players to win out over the competition in the marketplace, Blyverket says.

The Consumer Council has already been familiar with the matter for some time. They have tried to dialogue with the electricity companies and warn consumers.

– There are warnings about the relevant companies and agreements on strømpris.no. This is the only way people know about it. Power companies say nothing, says the director of the consumer council.

Electric companies: open to dialogue

VG has been in contact with Fjordkraft regarding the allegations against the company. Communications director Jon Vaag Eikeland writes to VG that it is challenging to respond to criticism without being familiar with the documentation on which it is based and the conditions that apply specifically to Fjordkraft.

– We are concerned about following current laws and regulations and will enter into a dialogue with the Norwegian Consumer Agency if they think this is something we should change. We are also in a process with Energi Norge that will introduce a voluntary certification scheme for electricity providers called Trygg strømhandel, Eikeland writes in an email to VG.

Agva Kraft’s marketing director, Bjørn Arctander, is unfamiliar with the criticism from the Consumer Council. In an email to VG, he writes that the strømpris Consumer Council summary of electricity prices has not distinguished for a long time between spot price agreements and purchase price agreements.

– We offer both. If they now want us to specify purchase price agreements with a common standard, we will, Arctander says.

Geir Arne Gundersen, communications director for NorgesEnergi, writes to VG that they record that the Consumers Council has contacted the Norwegian Consumer Agency.
– Of course, we want to answer the questions that the Consumer Agency may have if they contact us, says Gundersen.

Consumer Council: Rejected by trade association

The Consumers Council believes that it has repeatedly tried to establish a dialogue with both companies and the industrial organization Energi Norge. According to the Consumers Council, no one has shown a willingness to change.
– We have been in dialogue with Energi Norge and we said that this must end. Energy Norway has not met us.

Toini Løfieth, Director of Marketing, Electrification and Clients of Energy Norway, responds that they believe it is good that cases like this are presented to the Norwegian Consumer Agency.

Løvseth further writes that they are currently working on a new certification scheme called Trygg strømhandel and, in this regard, they maintain an ongoing dialogue with the Consumer Council.

– A clarification from them on how to report on the price elements that we can take with us in the next certification scheme, then we will get even better competition, for the sake of customers, writes Løvseth.

The director highlights that Energi Norge has supported the Consumers Council in its work to make it easier for consumers to find the best deals.

– In addition, we have made it clear that violations of marketing regulations must have financial consequences and we have asked the authorities to toughen the practice.