The Legal Basis of Utility Subscriptions
Registering as a utility subscriber for water, gas or electricity means, legally, a supply-contract relationship with a provider. Under the energy law, the supply of electricity or natural gas to a final consumer proceeds in the manner established by the law and the subordinate acts issued on its basis; apart from cases directly specified in the law, supply takes place at an unregulated market price, on the basis of a supply contract concluded between the consumer and the supplier. Household consumers and small enterprises have the right, in the cases provided by the law, to enjoy supply services. Subscription is thus a market relationship: your rights and the supplier's obligations mirror each other, and the law regulates that balance in detail.
Information, Service Centers and Claims
Every supplier is obliged to create an individual service point that keeps the final consumer informed of their rights, the regulations in force and the routes for resolving disputes. Through this point the consumer can obtain transparent information on prices, regulated tariffs and standard conditions; can have a choice of several non-discriminatory payment methods — a prepayment system must be fair and adequately reflect expected consumption; can receive information on the possibility of changing supplier free of charge; and can learn the transparent, simple and economical procedure for examining claims. Disputes must be resolved fairly and promptly within 10 working days, with reimbursement or compensation where appropriate. For consumption control, the consumer is supplied free of charge with systematic and accurate notice of actual consumption and the corresponding cost, and after the supplier-change procedure ends must receive the final statement (invoice) no later than 6 weeks.
For household consumers and small enterprises the supplier provides additional instruments: it creates service centers that deliver information by phone and email as well as in person and examine requests and claims; it creates a claims-examining commission for consumer protection; and it sets the service center's working hours according to consumers' needs on condition that the center works at least once a week up to 20 hours, with appointments possible by phone or email. The supplier publishes on its website an information card for energy consumers containing practical information about their rights. The charge for the energy delivered and for related services must be reflected clearly and comprehensibly in the invoice.