Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

AddedArticle 10 – paragraph 5: 5. Suppliers shall provide final customers with transparent information on applicable prices, tariffs, standard terms and conditions, in respect of access to and use of gases services, especially on whether the price is fixed or variable and, if relevant, on possible promotions or discounts, and additional products and/or services bundled with the gas services.

AddedArticle 10 – paragraph 5 a (new): 5a. Member States, through their National Regulatory Authorities, shall ensure that key contractual information is identified and highlighted within the offers provided by the suppliers to the consumers and shall monitor and report on transparency of market offers.

AddedArticle 10 – paragraph 6: 6. Suppliers shall offer final customers a wide choice of payment methods. Such payment methods shall not discriminate between customers. Any difference in charges related to payment methods or prepayment systems shall be objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate and shall not exceed the direct costs borne by the payee for the use of a specific payment method or a prepayment system, in accordance with Article 62 of Directive (EU) 2015/2366 of the European Parliament and of the Council25 .

AddedArticle 10 – paragraph 10: 10. Suppliers shall provide natural gas household customers with adequate information on alternative measures to disconnection sufficiently in advance of any planned disconnection. Such alternative measures shall include information about sources of support to avoid disconnection, prepayment systems, energy audits, energy consultancy services, alternative payment plans, debt management advice or disconnection moratoria and shall not entail an extra cost to the customers facing disconnection. / Disconnections in the case of vulnerable and energy poor household customers using natural gas for heating shall be prohibited during winter times. Member States may extend this prohibition to disconnect during winter times to other household customers as well. / Member States shall ensure that disconnections are prohibited during ongoing judicial or out-of-court disputes between the supplier and customers for a period of 8 weeks.

AddedArticle 11 – paragraph 1: 1. Customers shall have the right to switch gases suppliers or market participants. Switching supplier or market participant shall be carried out within the shortest possible time, and in any case not later than three weeks from the date of the request. Member States shall ensure that a customer wishing to switch suppliers or market participants, while respecting contractual conditions, is entitled to such a switch within a maximum of three weeks from the date of the request. By 2026 at the latest, the technical process of switching supplier or market participant shall take no longer than 24 hours and shall be possible on any working day.

AddedArticle 11 – paragraph 2: 2. Member States shall ensure that the right to switch supplier or market participant is granted to all customers in a non-discriminatory manner as regards cost, effort and time.

AddedArticle 11 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 1 – introductory part: Member States shall ensure that at least household customers, including the ones who signed up for a gas offer which is bundled with the provision of related equipment or services, and micro and small enterprises are not charged any switching-related fees for gases. However Member States may allow suppliers or market participants to charge customers contract termination fees where those customers voluntarily terminate fixed-term, fixed-price supply contracts before their maturity, provided that such fees:

AddedArticle 11 – paragraph 4 a (new): 4a. Member States should ensure that user-friendly information is provided to citizens in relation to the rules and process for switching suppliers in their respective Member State along with any relevant information about the switching as appropriate, including through the single points of contact referred to in Article 23 of this Directive.

AddedArticle 12 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 – introductory part: Member States shall ensure that at least natural gas household customers, small and microenterprises, have access, free of charge, to at least one tool comparing the offers of suppliers, including bundled offers. Customers shall be informed of the availability of such tools in or together with their bills or by other means. The tools shall meet at least the following requirements:

AddedArticle 12 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2: Member States shall ensure that at least one tool covers the entire gas market. Where multiple tools cover the market, those tools shall include, as complete as practicable, a range of gas offers covering a significant part of the market and, where those tools do not completely cover the market, a clear statement to that effect, before displaying results.

AddedArticle 12 – paragraph 3: 3. Member States shall require comparison tools referred to in paragraph 1 to include comparative criteria relating to the nature of the services offered by the suppliers, including on whether the price is fixed or variable, the contract length, the single unit price, including all charges and taxes, and discounts, in order to allow final customers to identify the cheapest offer, and in case the environmental impact is promoted as an essential feature of the offer, a description of the environmental impact. / When establishing these criteria, Member States shall consult relevant stakeholders, including organisations representing consumer’s interests.

AddedArticle 12 – paragraph 4: 4. Member States shall appoint a competent authority to be responsible for issuing trust marks for comparison tools that meet the requirements set out in paragraph 1, and for ensuring that comparison tools bearing a trust mark continue to meetthose requirements. In order to enable the competent authorities to issue trust marks, suppliers and relevant intermediaries shall provide them with all available current and past offers. In particular, competent authorities shall carry out regular reviews of price comparison tools bearing a trust mark to ensure that the requirements of paragraphs 1 and 3 are continually being met. That authority shall be independent of any market participants and comparison tool operators.

AddedArticle 13 – paragraph 1: 1. Member States shall ensure that final customers, such as final customers from agricultural or public sector, are entitled to act as active customers, while maintaining their rights as final customers as established in this Directive, without being subject to disproportionate or discriminatory technical requirements, administrative requirements, procedures and charges, and to network charges that are not cost-reflective.

AddedArticle 13 – paragraph 4 – point a: (a) have the right to a grid connection within a reasonable time after they made a request to that effect, provided that all necessary conditions, such as balancing responsibility, are fulfilled and it does not destabilise the system;

AddedArticle 14 – paragraph 1 – point d: (d) subject to fair compensation as assessed by the regulatory authority, relevant distribution system operators cooperate with citizen energy communities to facilitate transfers of renewable natural gases such as biomethane within citizen energy communities;

AddedArticle 14 – paragraph 2 a (new): 2a. Member States shall ensure that final customers, in particular household customers, are entitled to participate in a citizen energy community while maintaining their rights and obligations as final customers, and without being subject to unjustified or discriminatory conditions or procedures that would prevent their participation in a citizen energy community, as long as their participation does not constitute their primary commercial or professional activity so that there is no conflict of interest.

AddedArticle 16 – paragraph 2: 2. Member States shall ensure the deployment in their territories of smart metering systems in order to safeguard the benefits of final customers. Such deployment may be subject to a cost-benefit assessment which clearly assesses and specifies final customers benefits arising from the use of smart meters. The cost-benefit assessment shall be undertaken in accordance with the principles laid down in Annex II.

AddedArticle 16 – paragraph 3 a (new): 3a. Member States that ensure the deployment of smart-metering systems, shall through the National Regulatory Authorities and in consultation with consumer bodies and other relevant organisations, develop guidelines for the provision of clear and understandable information and advice to final customers about the benefits of smart meters. Those guidelines shall: / - include proposals on how all customer groups can use their smart metering system to improve their energy efficiency; / - address the specific needs of vulnerable customers such as visually impaired, hearing impaired, and those with low levels of literacy; / - enlist existing local support services to explain how vulnerable customers can benefit from smart appliances.

AddedArticle 23 – paragraph 1: Each Member State shall ensure that one single point of contact is established to provide customers with all necessary information concerning their rights, the applicable law and dispute settlement mechanisms available to them in the event of a dispute. Such single points of contact may be part of general consumer information points and may be the same entities as the single contact points for electricity referred to in Article 26 of Directive 2019/944/EU [on common rules for the internal market in electricity] or one-stop-shops established under [RED, EED, EPBD XX/XX], provided that such entities ensure access to both energy and consumer knowledge and information. / The single point of contact shall also provide clear and complete information about available support measures, including those targeted to vulnerable customers, such as temporary income support mechanism, support for energy efficiency measures, building renovations, alternative renewables based heating and cooling systems and access to renewable energy production, self-consumption, sale and storage. / Member States shall ensure that final customers are informed about where to find the national single point of contact. / Member States shall ensure that information on certified comparison tools are provided to consumers through the national single point of contact, as well as ensure access to at least one accessible comparison tool to customers that request it, including those without internet access.

AddedArticle 24 – paragraph 3 a (new): 3a. Member States shall regularly assess the functioning of the out-of-court dispute settlement mechanisms, especially with regard to the participation and compliance of energy service providers, intermediaries and distribution system operators.

AddedArticle 25 – paragraph 1: Member States shall take appropriate measures to protect final customers, and shall, in particular, ensure that there are adequate safeguards to protect vulnerable customers. In this context, each Member State shall define the concept of vulnerable customers which may refer to energy poverty. Measures to protect vulnerable consumers may include, inter alia, to the prohibition of disconnection to such customers in critical times, in addition to the measures laid down in Article 10(10).

AddedArticle 25 – paragraph 1 a (new): The concept of vulnerable customers may include income levels, a customers’ energy expenditure as a share of disposable income, critical dependence on gas equipment for health reasons, age or other relevant criteria.

AddedArticle 25 – paragraph 2: In particular, Member States shall take appropriate measures to protect final customers in remote areas who are connected to the natural gas or hydrogen systems. Member States may appoint a supplier of last resort for household customers, and, where Member States deem it to be appropriate, for small enterprises considered to be vulnerable customers connected to the gas system. They shall ensure high levels of consumer protection, particularly with respect to transparency regarding contractual terms and conditions, general information and dispute settlement mechanisms.

AddedArticle 25 – paragraph 2 a (new): Member States may take appropriate measures to address energy poverty. Such measures may include benefits by means of their social security systems to ensure the necessary supply to vulnerable customers, or support to deploy renewable energy and improve energy efficiency, including through building renovations, to sustainably overcome energy poverty and vulnerability.

AddedArticle 27 – paragraph 1: 1. Member States shall ensure the implementation of a system of third party access to the transmission and distribution system, and LNG facilities based on published tariffs, applicable to all customers, including supply undertakings, and applied objectively and without discrimination between system users. Member States shall ensure that those tariffs, or the methodologies underlying their calculation, are approved prior to their entry into force in accordance with Article 72 by a regulatory authority referred to in Article 70 and that those tariffs — and the methodologies, where only methodologies are approved — are published prior to their entry into force. Tariff discounts can be granted only if so provided by Union law or exceptionally where duly justified by the Member State and necessary to combat energy poverty among protected consumers.

AddedArticle 71 – paragraph 1 – point g: (g) ensuring that customers benefit through the efficient functioning of their national market, promoting effective competition and ensure high-level of consumer protection in close cooperation with relevant consumer protection authorities ;

AddedArticle 71 – paragraph 1 – point g a (new): (ga) ensuring that customers benefit from the efficient functioning of national markets overlapping with other energy markets, and where cross-sectorial issues arise, clarifying competencies among regulators and authorities and ensuring that solutions are cost-efficient;

AddedArticle 71 – paragraph 1 a (new): To ensure consistency with the overall policy objectives of this Directive, namely the protection of consumer interests, National Regulatory Authorities shall consult and cooperate closely with relevant consumer bodies to take into account consumers’ interest and preferences in developing energy policies but also to identify shortcomings in the implementation of their rights as laid down under this Directive.

AddedArticle 72 – paragraph 1 – point a: (a) fixing or approving, in accordance with transparent criteria, transmission and distribution tariffs or their methodologies , or both and making them public, where relevant;

AddedArticle 72 – paragraph 1 – point q: (q) monitoring the level and effectiveness of market opening and competition at wholesale and retail levels, including on natural gas and hydrogen exchanges, prices for household customers including prepayment systems, the relationship between household prices and wholesale prices, how network costs and policy levies are passed onto customers, the evolution of supplier operational costs and the impact on final customer groups, including household and non-household customers, switching rates, disconnection rates, charges for and the execution of maintenance services and complaints by household customers, as well as any distortion or restriction of competition, including providing any relevant information, and bringing any relevant cases to the relevant competition or consumer authorities;

AddedArticle 72 – paragraph 1 – point s a (new): (sa) cooperating with relevant consumer protection authorities to monitor that contract terms and conditions of gas supply contracts are fair, in line with consumer protection legislation, and do not create market segmentation that would lead to negative outcomes for certain consumer groups;

AddedArticle 72 – paragraph 1 – point s b (new): (sb) the effective functioning of certified comparison tools;

AddedArticle 72 – paragraph 1 – point s c (new): (sc) cooperating with relevant consumer protection authorities to monitor and, where necessary, advise on how tariffs having a positive environmental impact should be displayed and searchable according to their level of additionality, after the consultation with consumer bodies, the independent competent authority responsible for certifying comparison tools;

AddedArticle 72 – paragraph 1 – point ii: (ii) monitoring the removal of unjustified obstacles to and restrictions on the development of consumption of self-generated renewable natural gas and citizen energy communities, and prevent misuse of energy communities by market participants.

AddedArticle 72 – paragraph 10 a (new): 10a. Member States shall ensure that potential overlaps of competences between regulators or other bodies across different sectors are avoided, so that consumers know whom to contact in case of cross-sectoral issues.

AddedAnnex II – point 1: 1. Member States shall ensure the deployment of smart metering systems in their territories that may be subject to an economic assessment of all the long-term costs and benefits to the market and the individual consumer or which form of smart metering is economically reasonable and cost-effective and which timeframe is feasible for their distribution. Such assessment shall also take into account consumers’ benefits arising from the use of smart meters and signing up for smart meter-enabled offers. The assessment shall take into account the network development plans referred to in Article 51 and in particular on decommissioning of networks referred to in paragraph 2, point (c) of that Article.