The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) has supported the Government’s proposal prohibit electricity marketers can carry out the contracting of the supply or advertising by via telephone, unless there is an express request by the consumer, with the aim of protecting customers from fraudulent calls.
The CNMC has published its report to the draft Royal Decree approving the general regulation of supply and contracting and establishing the conditions for the marketing, aggregation and protection of the consumer of electrical energy, with which the Government seeks update current regulations in this matter in numerous aspects that have become obsolete, also adapting to the current supply context and the European regulatory framework.
In its report, the body chaired by Cani Fernandez highlights that it shares the initiative to prohibit this type of action for telephone sales by the marketer, which it considers should be extended to the aggregator, and the same as was done with home contracting.
Telephone contracting will only be possible if the client himself calls or they call him after explicitly requesting it.
In this regard, remember that the CNMC already advocated for this measure in its report on Retail Supervision of gas and electricity corresponding to 2022 and progress to 2023. “It is considered that the existence of some misleading calls does not encourage competition but rather generates greater mistrust by consumers in the face of the misleading messages they receive,” defends the regulator.
Furthermore, he emphasizes that Consumers are receiving these calls, without having given prior express consent, “having been collected in the best of cases, without the end user being aware of it” and denounces that, in some cases, “there are fraudulent calls and also identity theft“, as confirmed by the fact that it has received numerous complaints and several information files are being processed in this regard.
The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge proposed in August to definitively put an end to fraudulent calls in which teleoperators impersonate personnel from the company with which customers have contracted their electricity. A draft Royal Decree of the cabinet led by Teresa Ribera Submitted to public consultation since the summer, it intends to veto this possibility. Telephone contracting will only be possible if the client himself calls or they call him after explicitly requesting it.
Solvency to avoid chain bankruptcies
Furthermore, the CNMC asks the requirement of greater obligations and capital requirements for marketers so that the chain bankruptcies seen during the energy crisis are avoided. In this sense, the regulator proposes that the marketer provide minimum guarantees to start the activity. “For example, 100,000 euros, as is the case in Portugal,” he says.
Additionally, he believes that it would be appropriate to add requirements to prove economic capacity, such as being up to date with the payment of tax and Social Security obligations, not having requested the declaration of bankruptcy, nor having been declared insolvent in any procedure, nor being declared insolvent. competition, nor be subject to judicial intervention, or not having been disqualified to carry out any energy activity, without the established period of disqualification having concluded.
Likewise, to proceed to register a marketing company, it advocates recovering the administrative authorization model, once correct compliance with the requirements has been verified. He also advocates compliance with technical capacity criteriasuch as accreditation of experience of having carried out the activity in recent years or having a technical assistance contract with an entity that has sufficient experience or enabling the CNMC to establish the criteria to consider this capacity accredited.
The CNMC indicates that the number of electricity marketers in other countries is significantly lower than the number of marketers in our country. Thus, the United Kingdom currently has 60 active marketers, the Netherlands 58 and France 53, according to information provided by regulators. compared to the 243 marketers who are active in Spain.
Individual vote
The CNMC report, in any case, has a concurrent private vote from councilor Josep Maria Salas, that agreeing with the meaning of the final decision of the plenary session, consisting of the unanimous approval of the document, it does consider it necessary to add various reasoning based on the discrepancy regarding the prohibition of unsolicited telephone calls.
In this regard, the counselor believes that this is a measure “so extreme that it does not conform to the principles of good regulation.” Likewise, it defends that the final effect for the consumer will be negative and that before proposing any prohibition, “less harmful measures to limit the impact on competition and other rights” should be considered.
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