France scrutinises electricity suppliers over pricing

Electricity suppliers in France will have to send monthly reports on their prices to the Commission de régulation de l'énergie (CRE) from January 2025, to avoid customers being left with huge bills if there is another sharp price rise.

It is the last of three measures announced this year, after an inquiry into the behaviour of some suppliers when prices rose after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Price information given by suppliers, on what they are charging both existing and new customers, will be checked by the CRE to make sure they are “coherent with the market”.

Read more: 'EDF's IT error left me with €8,500 electricity bill for small French house'

EDF's regulated prices

The industry in France is dominated by the state-owned EDF, which has its prices fixed by the government.

Other suppliers are free to set their own prices, and some have made a name for themselves offering prices below the regulated price by purchasing electricity at 'spot market' prices.

However, when the spot market price was above the regulated rate, some companies charged customers far more than the regulated rate, while buying their electricity at the regulated rate from EDF.

“We want to make sure the prices charged actually correspond to the economic situation companies find themselves in,” said the CRE.

The two other measures are stricter regulation from the CRE and the industry, and a requirement to improve communication on prices to customers.

The CRE said it will pass on cases of customers being ripped off to the Autorité de la concurrence and the competition watchdog DGCCRF, which have policing powers.

Underhand practices

Another regulator, the Médiateur national de l'énergie, has named and shamed four companies which it said deliberately kept monthly direct debit orders low to hide price rises from customers, before hitting them with massive bills. The companies are Engie, ENI, Ohm Energie and Wekiwi.

In his annual report, the Médiateur said “these bad practices are designed to give consumers the illusion of competitive prices”, but can result in “adjustment bills of several hundred or even thousands of euros”.

It also noted a sharp increase (74%) in disputes linked to price changes in 2023 compared to 2022, although the number of referrals remained stable (13,999 in 2023 versus 13,751 in 2022).

With 612 complaints per 100,000 contracts, Wekiwi was the supplier with the highest rate of complaints in 2023, 15 times higher than the average for all suppliers (40).

Read more: Millions of French homes escape August electricity price rise

Best electricity performers

At the other end of the scale, suppliers Octopus Energy, Ilek and Enercoop were the best performers, with fewer than 10 complaints per 100,000 contracts in 2023. 

EDF and Totalenergies were also below the average rate, with respectively 31 and 30 referrals per 100,000 contracts in 2023.

Distributor Enedis was singled out for poor handling of customer complaints, especially concerning the quality of its electricity supply or connection requests.

The Médiateur reminds consumers that it offers a comparison service online, and that customers can leave their current supplier for another at any time free of charge.