Press release
Payment of gas bills by instalments for stronger consumer protection
Milan, November 26, 2010
Consumer protection was strengthened for all cases in which a payment of the outstanding balance in the gas bill is requested. From the following month of March, suppliers may no longer be entitled to request a single payment; the opportunity has now been envisaged for customers to pay by instalments on a straight-line basis, in a number of instalments equal to the number of bills issued between a single balance and the next one. The change was introduced by the Energy Regulatory Authority by resolution Arg/gas 206/10 which, at the end of a consultation procedure with stakeholders, confirmed and strengthened a few provisions protecting consumers to which gas is supplied on regulated contract terms (1).
Italian versionThe resolution also provides that instalments may not be considered or enforced cumulatively, and that frequency will have to be the same as that of gas bills; the gas supplier will be entitled to request payment of the first instalment within 30 days of a request for instalment-payment received from the customer, or by the ultimate payment date of the bill for which instalment payment is granted. The same rules will apply to bills reporting balances that arise from tariff recalculations, i.e. issued after changes to tariffs.
In any case, a different arrangement may be agreed, provided that customer explicitly expresses its interest in such different arrangement to the seller and that customer has previously been informed of the measures introduced by the Authority with regard to instalment-payment.
The Authority's intervention has confirmed and reiterated a few rules on the payment of gas-bill balances by instalments, which rules were introduced last June by resolution ARG/gas 85/10 (2) after numerous reports received from consumers. Following the decision by a few operators to contest the resolution, after which a moratorium was granted, the Authority started a public consultation procedure open to all of the parties concerned on the issue of gas bill instalment-payment (DCO 33/10) with no intention by the Authority to thereby waive the previously enforced interlocutory measures.
At the end of the consultation, the Authority issued resolution ARG/gas 206/10 (available on website www.autorita.energia.it and to come into force on 1 March 2011) reiterating the foregoing rules.
In general, in view of consumer protection, it is hereby recalled that the opportunity to request instalment-payment has to be notified in the gas bill to be sent to customers and is only possible:
- if, due to a meter malfunction, payment is requested of any consumptions unrecorded by the meter;
- if a customer with an accessible counter is requested to pay a balance caused by one or more failed readings;
- if the balance to be paid - i.e. a balance on the consumptions payable and/or tariffs due - exceeds twice the amount of the highest amount payable as reported in estimate-based bills received after the previous bill for the balance (this of course will not apply if the difference between the charge reported in the bill issued for the balance and the amounts reported in estimate-based bills or in bills payable in advance is only caused by a seasonable change in consumptions).
(1) Regulated contractual terms are those established by the Energy Regulatory Authority for customers who still have to opt for a free-market tariff system.
(2) By this resolution, the Authority clarified that, in case of payment of balances by instalments, each instalment may not have a frequency differing from that of ordinary gas bills and that instalments may by no means be considered cumulatively. In addition, tariff recalculations arising from any change to tariffs are considered totally assimilable to ordinary balances due on bills.