NMa: Oxxio Eliminates Administrative Backlogs

After Essent, Eneco, Nuon, Greenchoice and Delta, the energy supplier Oxxio has eliminated its backlogs with regard to the dispatching of final settlements. The Netherlands Competition Authority (NMa) has reached this conclusion on the basis of checks recently carried out and on-site company inspections. By doing so, Oxxio has complied with the interdict which NMa served on Oxxio at the beginning of this year. NMa instructed Oxxio to eliminate the backlogs with regard to final invoices, which are sent to consumers who change address or switch suppliers, at the latest on 1 February 2006.

In 2005, the large energy companies promised Minister Brinkhorst (of Economic Affairs) and NMa's Office of Energy Regulation (DTe) that they would solve the administrative problems by 1 July 2005. With regard to Delta and Oxxio, additional checks were required because it emerged that the backlogs in invoicing still existed on 1 January 2005. Delta had eliminated its backlogs by 1 September 2005, but Oxxio still had a considerable backlog with regard to the dispatching of final settlements. For instance, Oxxio still had to send final settlements for several thousand changes of address and applications to switch suppliers, which consumers had submitted before 1 January 2005. The company was given until 1 February to eliminate its backlogs because it was relatively new to the energy market and did not have its own grid.

Peter Plug, Director of DTe: 'There was an urgent need to eliminate backlogs in invoicing throughout the sector. This is good for confidence in the energy market. It is now important that the companies organise the final piece to their service provision, namely the processing of complaints."

DTe publishes a scorecard on its website each quarter, which gives consumers insight into the performance of individual energy companies. The scorecard shows, for instance, the situation per company with regard to the timely dispatching of invoices (within eight weeks). On the basis of this scorecard, DTe measures whether the performance of the energy companies with regard to invoicing meets the criteria.