The government will impose fines and quarantine for violations in the electricity market
Too many Danes are being deceived in the electricity market, and the authorities' sanctioning options are currently not strict enough to deter companies from cheating.
This is the view of Minister for Climate, Energy, and Utilities Lars Aagaard (M).
Therefore, the government proposes a series of measures aimed at giving authorities more options to impose fines or place electric trading companies in quarantine that fail to comply with the rules.
- There are unfortunately bad apples in this industry, and it affects consumers, but it also affects the honorable companies. Therefore, we need to get rid of the cheats, says Lars Aagaard.
- I want to give the authorities a bigger club so they can hit the cheaters on the head. Today, the consequences for breaking the rules are too small, he adds.
Several electricity companies have been under the authorities' scrutiny for failing to comply with the applicable rules, and several have been reported to the police by the Consumer Ombudsman.
The cases involve, for example, reporting incorrect information to the website elpris.dk, unclear cancellation terms, and misleading practices.
The business organization Green Power Denmark warned in the fall of 2024 about what it calls "ruthless electricity companies."
These companies were making unsolicited calls to consumers and subsequently moving them to their own company without the consumers being aware of it.
There have also been cases where electricity companies, in violation of the law, failed to refund former customers the money they were owed by the companies.
The government now proposes that Energinet should have the ability to place companies in quarantine from the platform DataHub, which, according to the Ministry of Climate, Energy, and Utilities, is crucial for acquiring new customers.
In addition, the government proposes that fines be imposed on companies that repeatedly violate rules and ignore any orders from authorities.
According to the ministry, a company with earnings of 20 to 50 million kroner could face a fine of up to half a million kroner.
Winni Grosbøll, Director of the Consumer Council Tænk, has previously described the conditions in the electricity market as "wild west-like."
She has confidence that the energy minister's initiatives will remove the worst bad apples in the industry.
- In reality, it is quite an insecure market for consumers. We have seen examples of consumers not getting the money they are entitled to.
- There are consumers who have had their electricity company changed overnight without being aware of it.
- The fact that they now want to introduce stricter sanctions and better approval procedures, so that consumers have to approve an electricity agreement with MitID, are all good steps toward a safer electricity market, says Winni Grosbøll.
Lars Aagaard will now call the political parties of the Folketing to negotiations about the government's proposal.
The plan is for the measures to be introduced as a bill in the fall of 2025, with the expectation that they will come into effect in 2026.
