On Friday, the German consumer protection organization called on citizens not to pay electricity bills if companies continue to charge exorbitant prices.
“The size of the increases is not justified by market prices,” Aribert Peters, head of the Energy Consumers’ Union, told local newspaper Bild.
Addressing consumers in Germany, he added: “Don’t pay your bills!”
Peters called on energy suppliers to provide “evidence” that the increases were justified at market prices.
- Advertisement -
During the last months of the current year 2022, electricity prices increased dramatically in Germany, which has the largest economy in Europe.
And launched several German organizations warnings that “consumers should prepare for a huge new wave of increases in gas and electricity prices.”
Experts told the Verivox platform, which is concerned with conducting economic comparisons, saying, “We are talking here about additional fees, an average of 54 percent for electricity and 50 percent for gas at the beginning of the year (next 2023).”
According to estimates by the Federal Statistical Office, energy prices in Germany actually increased by 35.6 percent between August 2021 and the same month this year.
Germany is facing an acute energy crisis due to the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war, which has cut off gas supplies and pushed energy prices to record levels.
Before the start of the war in Ukraine, Germany was getting 55 percent of its natural gas consumption from Russia.
