Request for a preliminary ruling from the Rayonen sad Plovdiv (Bulgaria) lodged on 8 December 2023 – ‘EVN Bulgaria Toplofikatsia’ EAD v OZ
(Case C-760/23, Shanov) 1
Language of the case: Bulgarian
Referring court
Rayonen sad Plovdiv
Parties to the main proceedings
Applicant: ‘EVN Bulgaria Toplofikatsia’ EAD
Defendant: OZ
Questions referred
1. Do Article 9(3) of Directive 2012/27/EU 1 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on energy efficiency, amending Directives 2009/125/EC and 2010/30/EU and repealing Directives 2004/8/EC and 2006/32/EC, 2 and Article 169 TFEU preclude the payment of costs for thermal energy radiated from a building’s installation if staircases and corridors are not equipped with radiators?
2. Do Article 9(3) of Directive 2012/27/EU and Article 169 TFEU preclude the possibility of a district heating supplier demanding consideration, on the basis of national legislation, for the consumption of heat from a building’s installation, where the quantity of thermal energy is determined according to a formula developed by the administration which
– introduces a factor determining the share of the total capacity of the heating system accounted for by the installed capacity of the building’s installation, without it being clear how that factor is established;
– is based on an installed capacity of the building’s installation which takes no account of what capacity is actually installed;
– takes no account of the temperature of the heat transfer medium in the building’s installation;
– assumes that the installation is constantly run at full capacity;
– takes no account of the specific mode of operation of the various types of heating system (Tichelmann in the present case) and treats them as identical with regard to mode of operation;
– automatically assumes an average temperature of 19 °C for buildings in co-ownership?
3. Do Article 9(3) of Directive 2012/27 and Article 169 TFEU preclude the possibility of a district heating supplier demanding consideration, on the basis of national legislation, for the consumption of heat for hot water, where the quantity of thermal energy is determined according to a formula developed by the administration which takes no account of the temperature to which the water is to be heated and supplied to subscribers or of the thermal energy required to heat it, does not take into account how many cubic metres of hot water the subscribers have consumed, and is applied in such a way that the quantity of water calculated for the winter heating period is always double the quantity calculated in summer?
4. Do Article 13 of Directive 2006/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 2006 on energy end-use efficiency and energy services and repealing Council Directive 93/76/EEC, Article 9(3) of Directive 2012/27 and Article 169 TFEU preclude the possibility of a district heating supplier demanding consideration, on the basis of national legislation, for the consumption of heat from the installation of a building in co-ownership in proportion to the heatable volume of the apartments according to the floor plan, without taking into account the quantity of thermal energy actually emitted in line with the technical capacity of the heating systems in the respective apartments?
For the purpose of answering that question, is it relevant that, under national legislation, the thermal energy of a building’s installation is a component in the algorithm for calculating the final amount to be paid by users for the total heat (the sum of the amounts for thermal energy emitted from the building’s installation, for heating and for hot water), whereby the amount to be paid for heating an apartment is derived from the difference between the total thermal energy (minuend) and the sum of the thermal energy from the installation, the thermal energy emitted by the radiators in the common parts of the building and the thermal energy for hot water (subtrahend)?
5. Does national legislation under which consumers pay for the supply of thermal energy emitted from a building’s installation in proportion to the heatable volume of the apartments according to the floor plan, without consideration of the amount of heat actually emitted to the individual apartments, infringe the prohibition of abuse of a dominant position under Article 101 TFEU and the prohibition on granting unlawful State aid under Article 107 TFEU[?]
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1 The name of the present case is a fictitious name. It does not correspond to the real name of any party to the proceedings.
1 OJ 2012 L 315, p. 1.
1 Directive 2006/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 2006 on energy end-use efficiency and energy services and repealing Council Directive 93/76/EEC (OJ 2006 L 114, p. 64).