VERT Chairman says Perlas Energija cannot terminate agreements without their consent

The VERT Chairman Renatas Pocius said Monday that the company could not terminate agreements with customers without their consent. He says the company could face a fine of up to 10% of revenue in 2021 or may lose the independent energy supplier permit.

In our assessment, Perlas Energija can't terminate agreements unilaterally because this would be an unlawful act. Pocius told reporters Monday that they urge the company to act responsibly and amend agreements only with written consent of consumers.

The Council's decision is based on the Civil Code, the Law on Electricity and the Law on Energy, according to the chairman.

There are ways to exit the market if the company can't meet the conditions of its agreements.

Pocius said that the State Consumer Rights Protection Service VVTAT would have to look at the situation. If the company does not meet the requirements, further decisions would be based on its findings. The company may lose its electricity supply licence and be fined up to 10% of the annual revenue for the previous year.

According to Pocius, other independent electricity suppliers like Perlas Energija offer similar plans, so consumers can choose to pay a similar price for electricity as they did with the company in question. He said that changing the supplier would be the simplest solution.

As reported on August 5th, Perlas Energija announced that it would cancel its fixed-price electricity supply plans and switch all customers to variable-price plans that are directly determined by the power market. Around 180,000 consumers selected this supplier after the second stage of the liberalisation of the retail electricity supply market by July.