According to a judgment of the Vienna Higher Regional Court, a fairly important letter will soon flutter in the letterbox in more than 300,000 households in the letterbox. The EVN Energy supplier has to pay for a reimbursement of a maximum of hundreds of euros per customer due to a price increase – but they have to act quickly.
Clients of the lower Austrian energy supplier EVN can hope for compensation if they were provided by the company in 2022. Because the price increase was not legally in accordance with that time. The Association for Consumer Information (VKI) has been agreed with the EVN compensation.
Private customers receive a compensation payment or a credit in the EVN vouchers. Registration is possible until July 31 on the VKI website.
Clause for price adjustment was not -inadmissible
The basis of the agreement is that the Higher Regional Court of Vienna (OLG) has declared an EVN price adaptation clause -inadmissible. As a result, the VKI, which had sued, is the legal basis for the price increase eliminated in September 2022. The comparison should compare the extra costs for electricity and natural gas caused by the price adjustment.
The amount of compensation depends on the consumption
At the beginning of May 2025, the EVN information letter sends more than 300,000 affected household customers. From a comparison also benefits that is no longer EVN customer. The amount of the compensation payment or the credit depends on the individual consumption. The rates Optima Strom, Optima Eco, Optima Natur, Optima Eco Natur, Optima Gas and Optima Biogas were influenced by the price increase 2022.
Stefan Schreiner, head of the collection campaigns in the VKI, expects compensation payments or bonus points “with the equivalent of a few hundred euros”. Herwig Hauenschidl, director of EVN Energy Trrein GmbH & Co KG, praises the “good solution in the interest of our customers”, but wishes “urgent legal certainty for necessary price adjustments”. The Planned Electricity Industry Act (ELWG) must “finally create the necessary clarity”.
EVN hopes for clearer rules of the legislator
The specific amount of the compensation depends on the consumption, rate and the period in which the rate was compensated and will be announced in individual cases. But an average household that was supplied until 1 April 2023 with one of the affected rates, receives 2500 EVN bonus points or 50 euros and for gas 16,750 EVN bonus points or 335 euros. Bonus points and the compensation payments will be booked or transferred to the specified bank account within eight weeks, the EVN promises.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
