The National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) has imposed several measures on Endesa Energía, Naturgy Iberia, Iberdrola Clientes and HolaLuz Clidom to prevent electricity consumers from being affected by erroneous changes of supplier, as reported by the regulator.
Complaints before the CNMC for changes of electricity company without the consent of the customers and motivated by erroneous supply codes (CUPS) in the new contracts increased by 360% in 2021 and continued to grow in the first half of 2022.
The weight of this type of claim doubled and would now represent 31% of the total for changes without consent.
A ‘CUPS crossover’ means that the user who requests a change of electric company is wrongly assigned the CUPS of another client; consequently, you will be billed for the consumption of a foreign home or premises.
For his part, the consumer who “loses” his usual CUPS will no longer be supplied by his usual retailer and will not know the name of the retailer who made the change in error by not being listed as the owner of the distributor. If you manage to find out which vendor made the mistake, it will not recognize you as a customer and it will be very difficult for you to make a claim. In the worst case, it could suffer a supply cut if the consumer to whom his CUPS was wrongly assigned unsubscribes from the new contract or stops paying his bills, upon receiving double billing, explains the CNMC.
The legally binding decision of the CNMC affects Endesa Energía, Naturgy Iberia, Iberdrola Clientes and HolaLuz Clidom, who during the changes of supplier in the electricity sector will have to clearly and separately show the client the owner-address trinomial of the supply point -CUPS during contracting. Likewise, they will request confirmation of these data on a durable medium if they detect discrepancies in the information.
In case of wrong assignment, new precautions are established. In this way, in the event of a request to cut off the supply, a ‘CUPS crossing’ will be ruled out. The requesting consumer will be contacted, and these contacts must be accredited to the regulator if necessary.
If there has been a ‘CUPS crossing’, the responsible retailer will request as soon as possible to replace the affected consumer’s supply point to the previous retailer.
