The consumer Ombudsman for the ENGIE Group 2023 report

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FACING UP TO / 2023, AN UNPRECEDENTED CRISIS

Consumer concerns

• “Reassuring” messages from the French government.

Many consumers believed that the government’s tarif f pro-

tection measures applied universally to all energy contracts,

leading them to assume they were shielded from the price

hikes of 2022 and 2023. As a result, there was insuf f icient at-

tention paid to contract renewals or moving into a new home,

as they felt secure under the scheme.

• Moving homes. The law dictates that a contract must be tied

to a single residence and does not permit the transfer of a

contract from the old to the new property, even if the previous

rate was more favourable. Many consumers overlooked the

new prices, and ENGIE did not always prompt its customers, in

cases encountered during mediation, to be adequately aware

of the signif icant increases in energy prices.

Contract renewals During these instances suppliers pro

pose new prices that must adhere to the strict regulations

outlined by the Consumer Code Out of habit ENGIEs cus

tomers failed to compare the new of fers with their current

contracts Consequently they later discovered substantial

increases in their bills prompting recommendations from

the Ombudsman to provide better information to consumers

about price adjustments

Marketing Renewal announcement letters sometimes ap

peared overly optimistic excessively marketed by ENGIE

and therefore unsuitable for the circumstances

Habit Consumers previously associated increases in their

bills with consumption or meter issues

• Pricing presentation. For years, prices have been displayed

in euros per kilowatt-hour. When transitioning from €0.06/

kWh to €0.30/kWh, consumers may perceive the price change

as minimal, when in reality, it is multiplied by 5 in this example!

• Monthly billing. More than 90% of ENGIE customers are on

monthly billing plans, and their understanding of the bill of-

ten revolves around the monthly payment amount. However,

these payments are updated at the time of the annual invoic-

es. This disconnect from the contracts has consequences for

consumers’ awareness of real price increases. Some claim-

ants, even though informed by mail of the new tarif f rates,

rightly believed that the price had not changed because the

monthly payment remained the same (thanks to the tarif f

shield). The disappointment came in 2023 with the adjust-

ment bill

During the crisis many French households undertook energy

ef f iciency improvement works and sought to benef it from state

subsidies Following cases of fraud the government tightened

the processes for accessing these subsidies In these specif ic

dispute cases the Mediation analysed whether the process

had been followed and if ENGIE had provided all the necessary

information to the claimants at the right time Otherwise the

claimants requests were granted