NMa fines Dutch energy company Essent for providing incomplete information

The Netherlands Competition Authority (NMa) has imposed a fine of €50,000 on Dutch energy company Essent Retail Energie B.V. The reason Essent is fined is because it provided the Office of Energy Regulation (EK) of the NMa with incomplete files on complaints for the month of January 2008. Essent is officially required to supply the EK with this kind of information. To a certain extent, the EK relies on the information that it is provided with by the energy companies when fulfilling its oversight role. The files from Essent served as input in a survey by the EK on the handling of complaints by energy companies.

In February 2008, Essent found out it had made a selection error in an internal investigation into the handling of complaints, resulting in the use of incomplete data files. Essent corrected the selection error, and has provided the EK with complete data files from February 2008 onwards.


Only after the EK had conducted a company inspection at Essent did the incompleteness of the submitted file on complaints of January 2008, which was sent to the EK, come to light. Providing the EK with incomplete files hinders the EK in fulfilling its oversight role. Additionally, the EK had to have an independent research firm carry out further research. The publication of the survey by the EK has subsequently suffered some delay.