Congress will process a law so that electricity companies inform users about the ways to resolve disputes

The former abstained because they believe it is unnecessary to draft a bill to modify a rule already in force – companies are already obliged to offer their users conflict resolution mechanisms – which, according to the popular ones, could be done by adding an amendment to some initiative. already in process. The latter voted against for the same reason, although they were more forceful. Those from Abascal judged the PSOE proposal as a “trifle” of “a page and a half” whose only intention “is to make a show, pretend that here, in this Chamber, and in this legislature, something is being legislated,” snapped his spokesperson.

Junts is also against it, although for other reasons. According to Josep Maria Cruset yesterday, the nationalists will present an amendment to the entire text because they understand that it represents an invasion of powers to Catalonia.

The law refers to alternative dispute resolution systems (ADR), which are a mechanism contemplated in Spain as an alternative to the judicial process in cases of contractual disputes, and yet very unknown among consumers. In an ADR, The two parties agree to the intervention of a third party that carries out the resolution procedure, either imposing or proposing a solution or bringing the parties together to find a solution between them.

A mechanism unknown to consumers

In Spain, this matter is regulated, among others, by a 2017 law that incorporated the European Directive on the resolution of consumer disputes into our legal system. Among other things, this transposition established the requirements that must be met by entities that act as ‘third party mediators’ for entities to be included in the lists of accredited entities.

As has already been advanced, electricity companies are already obliged to offer their customers the possibility of resolving their conflicts through ADR. In the mouth of Emilia Almodóvar Sánchez, the PSOE defended the proposal yesterday, ensuring that The main objective is to harmonize the information to be included in the web pages, contracts and invoices, precisely, to make known a generally very unknown legal option.

“They [los consumidores] They should know that they can go to a place other than the court when they have to file a complaint, an error in your invoice, an error in your contracts or in your supplies,” said Almodóvar.

It must be remembered that the fact that a user resorts to an ADR does not eliminate the judicial route, but its existence alleviates the workload of the courts, as the Sumar group argued yesterday.

On behalf of the PP, Guillermo Mariscal has admitted that he agrees that the arbitration mechanisms must be expanded when resolving conflicts that have to do with the electricity or gas factor, but has criticized that it is done through a bill and not through an amendment to any initiative currently in process.