Once again, the energy company Ennatuurlijk has been told that it is unfairly charging too high a fee. For almost thirty years, the company has been wrongly charging customers connection fees. In 2022, a judge rebuked the company, which has many customers in Tilburg and Eindhoven. Of course, he disagreed and appealed. But it was wrong there again. Now the energy company is raising the costs for customers.
For years, Ennatuurlijk has wrongly charged thousands of households connected to district heating in Eindhoven and Tilburg additional costs. This concerns 24,650 households in Tilburg and 5,600 households in Eindhoven where this incorrect “connection contribution” was charged. The residents had to reclaim the excess money themselves. A judge ruled in 2022. Ennatuurlijk disagreed with this and the energy company appealed.
Read alsoEnnatuurlijk wrongly charges additional costs for district heating
Increase rates
It didn't work for the energy company. The court in Den Bosch once again ruled that the connection contribution was unjustified. “In addition to the fact that Ennatuurlijk can no longer collect the connection contribution, the energy company must pay the legal costs,” the court said. Now that Ennatuurlijk has been proven wrong once again, it seems that many victims can claim their money back.
Since the Den Bosch court ruling, Ennatuurlijk has increased its rates. According to them, this was due to a calculation error by the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). This error underestimated the maximum costs the company could charge. As a result, Ennatuurlijk says it now feels obliged to increase its prices. The company initially charged €45.73 per gigajoule (GJ) of heat, now it is €46.69. This rate is valid until the end of this year.
Instead of having to worry about costs
There has been a lot of buzz surrounding Ennatuurlijk. During the 2022 energy crisis, a petition was created against the company’s incredibly high costs. It was signed over 19,000 times. There has also been a lot of hassle surrounding refunds for customers. Some victims have gotten their money back, while others haven’t gotten a penny back.
We have written this before about ENNATURAL:
The energy company will refund the connection costs that were incorrectly collected.
They paid too much for heating the area for years: Reichhof residents go to court
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