Greece’s Consumer Institute INKA has launched a collective legal action against electricity providers who impose an additional cost on consumers through the so-called “adjustment clause.” The clause burdens the already and extra charge of often several hundreds euros to the already soaring electricity bills with an extra charge of often several hundreds euros.
The General Consumers Federation of Greece and its members are turning against electricity providers, who impose additional costs on consumers through the adjustment clause.
“The collective action seeks, on the one hand, to have recognized this behavior as anti-consumer and illegal, and, on the other hand, to prohibit the repetition of this behavior for the future, in order to protect consumers,” INKA said in its statement dated March 23, 2022.
The action is against 20 electricity providers: 1. PPC/ΔΕΗ, 2.Protergia, 3.Elpedison, 4.ΗΡΩΝ, 5.WATT+VOLT, 6.ΖΕΝΙΘ, 7.Volton, 8.NRG, 9.Φυσικό Αέριο, 10.Volterra, 11.KEN, 12.OTE Estate, 13.ΕΛΤΑ Ενέργεια, 14.Green, 15.EΛINOIΛ, 16.PetroGaz Energy, 17. Solar Energy, 18.BI.ENEP, 19.Nova Energy, 20.We Energy.
Eligible to participate in the action are private consumers and but businesses (except those providing electricity) even those not INKA members yet.
In an announcement INKA said that in conditions of uncontrollable price hikes and inability to effectively deal with market distortions, it decided to file collective lawsuits against the electricity providers, regarding the issue of the adjustment clause.
To facilitate electricity consumers to join the action, INKA has established a special secretariat and a website:
-Special Secretariat for Collective Legal Action, for the immediate information and service of consumers who wish to participate in the Collective Legal Action: address: 6 Irodou Attikou, Chalandri, Attica), with its own call center at 211-0135 199 (operation in working days days and hours (Monday to Friday, 9 am-5pm).
– Special website for the information and the facilitation of the consumers who wish to participate in the Collective Education at the electronic address https://syllogiki-inka.gr.
INKA website: https://www.inka.gr/
– There are 3 mailboxes. Consumers can contact info.inka.gr@gmail.com, eggrafi.inka.gr@gmail.com and inka@inka.gr
In order to participate in the Collective Action, one must follow the following steps:
1. Step one: Become a member of INKA
You can register as a member of INKA by filling out the Application for registration in INKA, which you will find HERE.
Attention: Your registration and participation in the Collective Education according to Law 2251/1994, is possible only if you are financially regular members. This means that in order to register with INKA, you will have to pay a lump sum of 20 euros and to participate in each phase of the court proceedings you will have to pay extra, for each degree of jurisdiction, ie for bringing an action in the Court of First Instance, for the introduction of the case in the Court of Appeals and finally, for the appellate trial before the Supreme Court the amount of 50 euros per participant and per degree of jurisdiction. For details see answers 24 and 25 found in the section Q&A HERE
2. Step two: Documents you need
After registering as a member of INKA, for your participation in the Action you will need:
Copy of the contract you signed with your provider.
Copies of January-February-March 2021 clearing electricity bills.
Copies of January-February-March 2022 clearing electricity bills.
A written authorization to the lawyers who have undertaken the drafting, filing and trial of the Lawsuit, which you will find HERE.
3. Step three: Send documents
After printing and filling in all the required documents and your details, you should send them scanned (or with clear photos from your mobile phone) in the e-mail box: eggrafi.inka.gr@gmail.com
In case of multiple electricity connections from different providers, all of the above documents need to be resubmitted for each additional provider.
INKA estimates that the Collective lawsuit is to be submitted by end of May and due to the huge social interest a court decision could be due in 3-4 months.
All procedure is in Greek. Don’t forget to check with the Q&A section here.
Why should a person have to pay up front for a class action lawsuit. The law firm should shoulder this burden like in the USA and take it’s fee upon award amount by court. The fact that you have to pay at each level of court appeal is a red flag.
because here is not USA
maybe the process is forbidden ? in france it is