Report for 2018
Implementing the obligation of the Coordinator for negotiations to the President of the Energy Regulatory Office (hereinafter referred to as the Coordinator) resulting from art. 11 sec. 1 of the Act of September 23rd, 2016 on Out-of-court resolution of consumer disputes (Journal of Laws of 2016, item 1823), I hereby inform that:
- in 2018, 620 cases were presented to the Coordinator, of which the criteria meeting cases for qualifying the consumer's letter as a motion and initiating the proceedings based on it were 469.
Over 85% (401 z 469) applications arose from the electricity market, and the remaining not quite 15% (68 z 469) from the gaseous fuel market.
In both cases, the most frequent subject of dispute were issues related to accounting with an energy company or the consumer being misled when signing a contract with an energy company. - a recurring while important problem in the relations between consumers and energy companies, constituting frequent hotbeds of disputes were the issues of misleading the consumer when signing a contract.
A dispute arising from the above mentioned reason can be avoided throughout carefully examining the agreement to be signed, above all by verifying the parties names, as well as meticulous review of the terms of trade and duration. It is also recommended to verify in detail the authorization and identity of a person handling the contract to be signed. - The Coordinator rejected to handle the dispute in 47 cases, which constitutes not quite 8% (47 out of 620) of all disputes lodged in 2018. In nearly 43% (20 z 47) of cases, the rejection had been dictated by non-compliance with the objective criteria, whereas in over 57% (27 z 47) of cases by failure to meet the subjective criteria.
- Somewhat over 24% (115 out of 469) of the proceedings initiated in 2018 were closed before reaching results, due to the energy company’s lack of consent to participate in the proceeding. The Parties came to an agreement in 185 proceedings, which constitutes 52% (185 out of 355) of the proceedings substantively conducted by the Coordinator and initiated in 2018.
- The average duration of proceedings concluded by the protocol in 2018 was 90 days.
- The Coordinator does not perform analyses of the percentage share of cases, in which the parties have complied with the outcome of the out-of-court resolution of consumer disputes, in relation to the number of proceedings initiated.
- The Coordinator is a member of NEON - National Energy Ombudsmen Network, an international association seated in Brussels, Belgium, that associates entities conducting out-of-court proceedings for resolving consumer disputes and facilitating the cross-border dispute resolutions.
07.05.2019