The energy company’s customers have just received high district heating bills for 2022. The consumer advice center is going to court, the Federal Cartel Office is examining several providers. Are these prices legal?
The mail that Angelika Sieben received shortly after Christmas is not contemplative. There are several pages of the energy supplier Eon, the first one shows the essential sum: an additional payment for heating and hot water for 2022 of 3,473.37 euros. “I thought I was going to faint. That can’t be true at all,” says Sieben on the phone. “We said straight away: We won’t pay that.” Sieben and her husband live 110 square meters in their terraced house in the small town of Erkrath in North Rhine-Westphalia. They heat the bathroom and also the living room, although sometimes they only use the fireplace there, she says. “And we shower, sure, but that’s why such a bill?” Angelika Sieben’s district heating bill for the entire year is almost 6,800 euros and is available to the SZ. Sieben has already paid part of it, but she refuses to pay the additional payment and has lodged an objection.