Våre still considers the payments to be due, but announces that it will pay them back following a decision by the Consumer Disputes Board.
Energy services company Vare has announced that it will refund the data hub fee charged from its customers in fixed-term power contracts.
The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (KKV) previously announced that Vare should refund data hub fees to its customers. Consumer Disputes Board settled the matter.
In June last year, Vare began collecting a separate data hub fee from its customers. The consumer advice and consumer representative of the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority received a number of contacts regarding Vari’s payments.
The consumer ombudsman had demanded that the company waive the payment. KKV submitted a group complaint to the Consumer Disputes Board in September last year.
The amount returned to the customer consists of a one-time payment of 3.72 euros and a monthly continuing payment of 23 cents. In addition, the refund includes interest on the committed capital for DataHub Payments.
The amount will be refunded in the form of an invoice credit to Väre’s current customers and as an account payment to former customers. In the near future, the Company will inform the parties separately about the refund and its timing.
DataHub is a centralized information exchange system for the electricity retail market, which was introduced in February last year. It is based on changes to the Electricity Market Act and is mandatory for electricity retailers.
Vary’s view is still that based on the Electricity Market Act the cost of the data hub was not known when the fixed term contract was signed and therefore the company’s justification for the increase would be valid.
However, the Competition and Consumer Agency has not come to the knowledge that any other power company has done a similar thing.
Våre has an obligation to pay the data hub fee charged by Fingrid Datahub Oy
– Even though we believe that we have the right to increase the prices of fixed-term contracts based on Datahub payments, we are satisfied with the recommendation of the Consumer Disputes Board and we will end the matter here, says Vary CEO Juha Kesky In a Karhu press release.
