VERT Chairman Renatas Pocius said Monday that the company could not terminate agreements with customers without their consent. He says the company may face a fine of up to 10% of revenue in 2021 or may lose the independent energy supplier permit.
“In our assessment, Perlas Energija cannot terminate agreements unilaterally because this would be an unlawful act. Therefore, we urge the company to act responsibly and amend agreements only with consumers’ written consent,” Pocius told reporters Monday.
The chairman says the Council’s decision is based on the Civil Code, the Law on Electricity and the Law on Energy.
Whereas the company has to fulfil the conditions of its agreements, but if it cannot honour them, there are ways how to exit the market.
Pocius added that the State Consumer Rights Protection Service (VVTAT) would have to examine the situation, too. Further decisions would be based on its findings if the company does not comply with the requirements, i.e. the company may be fined up to 10% of the annual revenue for the preceding year or lose its electricity supply licence.
According to Pocius, other independent electricity suppliers offer similar plans like Perlas Energija, therefore, consumers may terminate the agreement and choose to pay a similar price for electricity as they did with the company in question. He added that changing the supplier would be the simplest solution.
As reported, Perlas Energija announced on 5 August that it would cancel its fixed-price electricity supply plans and switch all customers to variable-price plans that are determined directly by the power market. Approximately 180,000 consumers selected this supplier after the second stage of the liberalisation of the retail electricity supply market by July.
