The Constitutional Court annuls the prohibition of cutting off electricity to vulnerable Catalan families

BarcelonaA decade after it came into force, the Constitutional Court (TC) has annulled two articles of the Catalan law from 2015 that prevents companies from cutting off basic supplies such as electricity and gas to vulnerable consumers. In its justification, the magistrates point out that the regulation is incompatible with the state system of protection in cases of non-payment due to necessity and, therefore, declares that Parliament has overstepped its authority and invaded competencies. The ruling does not, for now, mean immediate cuts, as there is a moratorium in force at the Spanish level that prevents these basic services from being cut off until December 31.

200,000 energy cuts for vulnerable familiesThe TSJC considered that two of the articles of the law were unconstitutional in preventing cuts after the fifteen-day period without municipal social services having issued a vulnerability report determining whether the person or family unit is in one of the situations of risk of residential exclusion that protect them from electricity and gas cuts. Spanish law, on the other hand, bases this consumer protection on thresholds set in the electricity voucher, which are more restrictive because they only take into account the income factor and not other social factors such as those provided for by the Catalan law. Furthermore, while the law approved by Parliament prohibits cuts permanently, the Spanish one is temporary and, despite pressure from social entities to make it permanent, it will end on the last day of this year.

According to calculations by the Alliance against Energy Poverty (APE), in the first six years of the Catalan law's validity, approximately 200,000 energy cuts for vulnerable families were avoided.