Request for a preliminary ruling from the Consiglio di Stato (Italy) lodged on 3 January 2022 – Green Network SpA v SF, YB, Autorità di Regolazione per Energia Reti e Ambiente (ARERA)
(Case C-5/22)
Language of the case: Italian
Referring court
Consiglio di Stato
Parties to the main proceedings
Applicant: Green Network SpA
Defendants: SF, YB, Autorità di Regolazione per Energia Reti e Ambiente (ARERA)
Questions referred
Are the provisions of EU law contained in Directive 2009/72/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 1 – and in particular in Article 37(1) and (4), governing the powers of the regulatory authorities, and in Annex I – to be interpreted as including a prescriptive power exercised by the Italian electricity market regulatory authority (Autorità di Regolazione per Energia Reti e Ambiente) (ARERA), in relation to companies operating in the electricity sector, whereunder the authority may order such a company to reimburse customers, including former customers and customers in arrears, sums of money paid by such customers to cover administrative management costs, pursuant to a contractual term that has been penalised by the authority?
Are the provisions of EU law contained in Directive 2009/72/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 – and in particular in Article 37(1) and (4), governing the powers of the regulatory authorities, and in Annex I – to be interpreted as including, within the scope of any compensation and the refund arrangements which apply to customers in the electricity market if contracted service quality levels are not met by the market operator, the reimbursement of moneys paid by such customers that are expressly governed by a contractual term in an agreement that has been signed and accepted and bear no relationship to service quality itself but are stipulated as covering the economic operator’s own administrative management costs?
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1 Directive 2009/72/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 concerning common rules for the internal market in electricity and repealing Directive 2003/54/EC (OJ 2009 L 211, p. 55).