Complaints office opened today for complaints about door-to-door selling practices by Dutch energy companies

Dutch consumer information portal Consuwijzer opened today an online complaints office regarding complaints about door-to-door selling practices by energy companies. It did so because of the increasing number of complaints it has received about the door-to-door selling methods energy companies are allegedly employing to recruit customers. The Netherlands Competition Authority (NMa) and the Dutch Consumer Authority consider it completely unacceptable if it turned out that unethical practices are common in door-to-door selling by these companies. Consuwijzer is the official consumer information portal, jointly operated by several Dutch government agencies, including the NMa and the Dutch Consumer Authority.

Consumers who would like to file a complaint about door-to-door selling can visit www.consuwijzer.nl (in Dutch) and provide all of the relevant information they have, for example, on salesmen who lie or make up stories, give false information, withhold information or who apply aggressive sales methods. Consumers who felt coerced to sign a contract are also invited to come forward. Consuwijzer will be collecting all the complaints it receives - energy companies that do not play by the rules may be fined by either the NMa or the Consumer Authority. Misleading behavior iwhen dealing with customers (current and potential ones) is punishable by law.

If consumers are provided with incorrect or false information, it undermines their trust in the energy market. The NMa and the Consumer Authority highly value consumers being provided with correct information, since it would enable them make to well-founded decisions when they consider switching to different energy companies.