Five energy suppliers have clauses in their contract terms that allow the gas price in a fixed contract to rise during the term, even though customers may expect the tariff to stay put. Energy comparison site Energyvergelijk.nl found the clauses at Budget Thuis, Delta Energie, Innova Energie, Mega and Vattenfall, and the ACM is now stepping in.
The timing matters because the planned green gas blending obligation is due to start on 1 January 2027, followed by ETS-2 on 1 January 2028. Those measures are expected to add costs for suppliers of gas and other fossil fuels, costs that can be passed on to households. In the fixed contracts reviewed, that means the gas part is not always as fixed as the name suggests.
Koen Kuijper of Energyvergelijk.nl said the comparison site cannot know whether some suppliers had the clause in their terms earlier than now. “Het zou kunnen dat die clausule al eerder in de algemene voorwaarden stond, maar daar hebben we geen inzicht in,” he said. He added that the problem for consumers is that the supplier website often shows only the gas tariff. “Je moet echt het pdf openen en doorlezen om achter deze verhoging te komen. Dat doet lang niet iedereen,” Kuijper said.
Three of the suppliers, Budget Thuis, Delta Energie and Vattenfall, allow customers to cancel the contract without a fee if the gas price goes up. At Delta Energie, that right applies only to the gas contract, while the electricity contract continues. Innova Energie and Mega do not let customers walk away without a fee if the price changes, which makes those contracts harder to compare with a fixed deal that does what it says on the label.
The ACM said customers signing a fixed contract must know which tariff they will pay for the full contract period. “Het is belangrijk dat klanten die een vast contract afsluiten weten welk tarief zij gedurende de looptijd moeten betalen. Dit is ook belangrijk voor de vergelijkbaarheid van contracten,” a spokesperson said. The regulator also said it had already told energy suppliers that they could price in the cost of the green gas blending obligation and ETS-2 in new contracts ahead of the rules taking effect.
That background helps explain why suppliers are preparing now. The green gas blending obligation would require an increasing share of green gas in deliveries, and green gas is more expensive than natural gas. ETS-2, the second European emissions trading system created in 2005 to reduce fossil CO2 emissions, will require fuel suppliers serving the built environment, including households, to buy emissions rights and pass those costs on. The practical result is straightforward: suppliers may be allowed to recover future costs, but the ACM says they still have to make pricing clear enough for customers to compare contracts before they sign.
For now, the issue is not whether energy suppliers can raise prices when their costs rise. It is whether a fixed contract is really fixed if the gas tariff can move mid-term, and the regulator’s answer is that consumers must be able to see that plainly before they commit.
