What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

Added:(g) the method of initiating an out-of-court dispute settlement procedure in accordance with Article 24;

Added:(h) information relating to consumer rights, including clear and understandable information on complaint handling and how and where a complaint can be submitted and all the information referred to in this paragraph, clearly communicated on the bill or the hydrogen or natural gas undertaking's web site;

Added:(ha) information on the provider and the price of additional services, where relevant, such as insurance and energy efficiency services.

Added:The contractual conditions shall be fair and well known in advance. In any case, the information shall be provided in consumer friendly, clear and unambiguous language, prior to the conclusion or confirmation of the contract. Where contracts are concluded through intermediaries, the information referred to points (a) to (f) shall also be provided prior to the conclusion of the contract.

Added:Final customers shall be provided with a summary of the key contractual conditions in a prominent manner in a single document and in concise and simple language.

Added:Member States shall ensure, through their regulatory authorities, the use of common terminology agreed at national level.

Added:4. Final customers shall be given adequate notice of any intention to modify contractual conditions and shall be informed about their right to terminate the contract when the notice is given. Suppliers shall notify their final customer directly and in a transparent and comprehensible manner, of any adjustment in the supply price and of the reasons and preconditions for the adjustment and its scope, no later than two weeks, or no later than one month in the case of household customers, before the adjustment comes into effect. Member States shall ensure that final customers are free to terminate contracts if they do not accept the new contractual conditions or adjustments in the supply price notified to them by their supplier.

Added: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 gas services, in particular 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.

Added:5a. Member States, through their regulatory authorities, shall ensure that key contractual information is identified and highlighted within the offers provided by the suppliers to the costumers and shall monitor and report on transparency of market offers.

Added: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 Council.

Added:7. Household customers who have access to prepayment systems shall not be placed at a disadvantage by the prepayment systems.

Added:8. Suppliers shall offer final customers fair and transparent general terms and conditions, which shall be provided in plain and unambiguous language and shall not include non-contractual barriers to the exercise of customers' rights, such as excessive contractual documentation. Customers shall be protected against unfair or misleading selling methods.

Added:9. Final customers shall have the right to a good standard of service and complaint handling by their suppliers. Suppliers shall handle complaints in a simple, fair and prompt manner.

Added: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.

Added:Member States shall prohibit disconnections in the case of vulnerable household customers and customers affected by or at risk of energy poverty who use natural gas for heating during the winter. Member States may extend that prohibition to non-household customers.

Added: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 eight weeks.

Added:11. Suppliers shall provide final customers with a final closure account after any switch of supplier no later than six weeks after such a switch has taken place.

Added:1. Customers shall have the right to switch gas suppliers or market participants. 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 the shortest possible time, and in any case not later than three weeks after 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.

Added: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.

Added:3. Member States shall ensure that at least household customers, including those that accepted an offer to provide gas services which is bundled with the provision of related equipment or services, and microenterprises and small enterprises are not charged any switching-related fees for gas. 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:

Added:(a) are part of a contract that the customer has voluntarily entered into; and

Added:(b) are clearly communicated to the customer before the contract is entered into.

Added:Such fees shall be proportionate and shall not exceed the direct economic loss to the supplier or the market participant resulting from the customer's termination of the contract, including the costs of any bundled investments or services that have already been provided to the customer as part of the contract. The burden of proving the direct economic loss shall be on the supplier or market participant. The permissibility of contract termination fees shall be monitored by the regulatory authority, or by another competent national authority.

Added:4. Household customers for gas shall be entitled to participate in collective switching schemes. Member States shall remove all regulatory or administrative barriers for collective switching, and provide a framework that ensures the consumer protection to avoid any abusive practices.

Added:4a. Member States shall ensure that user-friendly information is provided to citizens in relation to the rules and process for switching suppliers in their Member State together with any relevant information about the switching as appropriate, including through the single points of contact referred to in Article 23.

Added:1. Where final customers are required to switch from heating with natural gas to alternative heat sources or district heating, including upon a decision stemming from a Member State, on the basis of the local heating and cooling plans prepared pursuant to Article 52a or the distribution network development plans referred to in Article 52b, Member States shall ensure that final customers that are directly concerned by that decision are fully informed by the distribution system operators and suppliers of those fuel switches sufficiently in advance of any planned switch.

Added:2. Member States shall ensure that final customers are fully informed about mandatory switches from non-gaseous fossil fuels by the relevant organisation or authority.

Added:3. Member States shall, assisted by the relevant operators and suppliers, provide final customers with a roadmap for the switch from heating with natural gas to alternative heat sources or district heating, including the procedure how this will be done, what steps are planned, and the relevant timeline.

Added:4. Member States shall ensure that final customers receive information on options to prepare or adapt their homes, commercial or industrial properties and processes and on advisory assistance, financial support and any assistance available to manage the changes and costs associated with the planned fuel switch or a district heating connection. That information should be delivered by single points of contact as established under Article 21 of Directive (EU) .../...+ , Article 26 of Directive (EU) …/… of the European Parliament and of the Council++ and Article [x] of Directive (EU) 2018/2001 [amended RED].

Added:5. Discrimination and cross-subsidisation between different categories of customers and between energy carriers shall be avoided when carrying out a fuel switch or a district heating connection.

Added:6. Member States shall ensure that measures are put in place to mitigate and resolve any inequities resulting from policies aiming to achieve an energy efficient and climate neutral energy system.

Added:7. Member States shall take all measures necessary to ensure that fuel switches or district heating connections implemented pursuant to this Article have no adverse effect on final customers, vulnerable customers, customers affected by or at risk of energy poverty and people who live in social housing. Where applicable, Member States shall make the best possible use of funding, including public funding and funding facilities established at Union level, with the aim of removing adverse effects and ensuring a just and inclusive energy transition.

Added:1. Member States shall ensure that at least natural gas household customers, small enterprises 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:

Added:(a) they shall be independent from market participants and ensure that natural gas undertakings are given equal treatment in search results;

Added:(b) they shall clearly disclose their owners and the natural or legal person operating and controlling the tools, as well as information on how the tools are financed;

Added:(c) they shall set out clear and objective criteria on which the comparison is to be based, including services, and disclose them;

Added:(d) they shall use plain and unambiguous language;

Added:(e) they shall provide accurate and up-to-date information and state the time of the last update on the information;

Added:(f) they shall be accessible to persons with disabilities, by being perceivable, operable, understandable and robust;

Added:(g) they shall provide an effective procedure for reporting incorrect information on published offers;

Added:(h) they shall perform comparisons, while limiting the personal data requested to that strictly necessary for the comparison.

Added: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.

Added:2. The tools may be operated by any entity, including private companies and public authorities or bodies.

Added: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 that environmental impact.

Added:When establishing those criteria, Member States shall consult relevant stakeholders, including organisations representing consumer’s interests.

Added: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 meet those requirements. 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 continue to be met. That competent authority shall be independent of any market participants and comparison tool operators.

Added:5. Any tool comparing the offers of market participants shall be eligible to apply for a trust mark in accordance with this Article on a voluntary and non-discriminatory basis.

Added:6. By way of derogation from paragraphs 4 and 5, Member States may choose not to provide for the issuance of trust marks to comparison tools if a public authority or body provides a comparison tool that meets the requirements set out in paragraph 1.

Added:1. Member States shall ensure that final customers, in particular from the agricultural or public sector, while maintaining their rights as final customers as established in this Directive, are entitled to act as active customers without being subject to disproportionate or discriminatory technical requirements, administrative requirements, procedures and charges, and to network charges that are not cost-reflective. Member States shall ensure that active customers comply with applicable sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions savings criteria under Article 29 of Directive (EU) 2018/2001 [amended RED] and the relevant provisions on methane emissions in Regulation (EU) .../... +.

Added:2. Member States shall ensure that active customers are:

Added:(a) entitled to operate directly;

Added:(b) entitled to sell self-produced renewable natural gas using the natural gas system;

Added:(c) entitled to participate in energy efficiency schemes;

Added:(d) entitled to delegate to a third party the management of the installations required for their activities, including installation, operation, data handling and maintenance, without that third party being considered to be an active customer;

Added:(e) subject to cost-reflective, transparent and non-discriminatory network charges, ensuring that they contribute in an adequate and balanced way to the overall cost sharing of the system;

Added:(f) are financially responsible for the imbalances they cause in the natural gas system or shall delegate their balancing responsibility in accordance with Article 3 (e) of [recast Gas Regulation as proposed in COM(2021) xxx].

Added:3. Member States may have different provisions applicable to individual and jointly-acting active customers in their national law, provided that all rights and obligations under this Article apply to all active customers. Any difference in the treatment of jointly-acting active customers shall be proportionate and duly justified.

Added:4. Member States shall ensure that renewable natural gas active customers that own facilities that produce or store renewable gas:

Added:(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;

Added:(b) are not subject to any double charges, including network charges, for stored renewable gas remaining within their premises;