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November 11, 2014 FACUA, one of the largest consumer organisations in Spain, have denounced all Spanish electricy companies for wrongly charging a higher rental price for the new digital meters than established by law.
The law states that a higher rental price can be charged for the new meters, but only if they are connected to a ´telegestión and telemedia´network, that enables reading the meter from a distance, for consumers to change tariff to night/day and to receive information on their usage from that network, so they can control and adjust their consumption.
According to FACUA, this is not the case, and the sur-charges for the new meters therefore illegal and discriminatory, as the consumers with the old meters pay a lower rentalprice for, in essence, the same service.
The difference in rentalprice between the old and the new meters is only 33 eurocents a month, but times 12 and times 9,5 million households in possession of the new meter by the end of 2014, it amounts to over 37 million euros a year.
Update 29.6.2015 FACUA is now taking the electricity companies to court over this matter, as none of them, nor the responsible authorities have taken action to correct this situation, in spite of numerous ´denuncias´.
Update 21.9.2015 The Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC) has responded to the denuncia from November last year and has confirmed that indeed the electricity companies are wrongly taking money for services not provided. The big companies were supposed to deliver a complete list of clients/contracts that now make use of the new digital meters, with specification about yes/no effectively connected to ´telegestión´ network in July of this year. They have not done so. As the government has not responded adequately to protect consumers, FACUA is now encouraging all affected consumers to file a denuncia against their supplier and facilitates forms on their website to do so. You do not need a lawyer to do so.
UPDATE 15.9.2016
The Junta de Andalucia has fined Endesa 400.000 euros for this very same practice, and added a sanction of almost 1.4 million for the illegal income gained from charging for a service that was not delivered all through 2014.
An avalanche of renewed denouncements from consumer organisations is expected, based on this ´Andalucia precedent´ and in some occasions the fines can amount to many millions, if the company in question has been fined before in a period of 2 years prior to the new sanction.
