The Bundeskartellamt has obliged the energy provider Entega to pay out approx. € 5 million in reimbursements to its electric heating customers. The authority has discovered that from 2007 to 2009 the company charged its household and small business customers abusively excessive prices. Around 23,000 electric heating customers can now expect to receive an average reimbursement of € 215 plus interest and value added tax. The actual amount will depend on individual consumption.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt, stated: "Competition is still the best guarantee for fair prices. However, this is still in its infancy in the electric heating sector with its monopolistic structures. Here customers are dependent on their supplier and there is virtually no possibility to switch provider. We shall therefore continue to act against abusively excessive prices for electric heating as well as for district heating and water, for the benefit of the consumer."

In autumn 2009 the Bundeskartellamt carried out searches at 25 electric heating providers across Germany. As a consequence, in 2010 companies with conspicuous pricing patterns had already undertaken to pay reimbursements of approx. € 27.2 million, lower their prices and introduce measures to open up the market (cf. Bundeskartellamt press release of 29 September 2010) with an attached detailed overview of the market and report on the respective proceedings (attachment available in German only).

Even in comparison with these companies Entega was the most expensive electric heating provider. After attempts to reach an agreement with the company had failed, the Bundeskartellamt compared in detail Entega's profit levels with those of other providers and examined whether the high prices charged by the company were objectively justified. In its analysis the authority took particular costs incurred by Entega in its procurement of electricity into consideration. These are due to load profiles established by the network operator in Entega's supply area. These load profiles determine that, to some extent, significant quantities of electricity also have to be supplied to electric heating consumers in the daytime, which increases Entega's procurement costs for electricity. However even these justified additional costs could only explain a fraction of the excessive prices.