French firms must pay €1.5k to woman after Linky error
Electricity firms EDF and Enedis have been ordered to pay €1,500 in damages to a woman in France who refused to pay her electricity bill after it wrongly soared following installation of a Linky smart meter.
The companies were ordered to pay the amount to the 84-year-old woman after being condemned for wrongly cutting off her electricity for two months, after she refused to pay her “astronomical” electricity bill, which came after she a Linky smart meter installed.
The meter was installed in February 2017. Eight months later, the woman was sent an electricity bill for €348, which she contested, saying that it was “far higher than her usual bill” even though her lifestyle had not changed.
She paid €60. In response to the unpaid amount, Enedis and EDF eventually cut off her electricity completely for the months of September and November 2018.
But, according to the judge, the Linky meter was deemed to be incorrect.
The judge said that records showed that before the Linky meter was installed, the woman’s average consumption was at 6 kWh per month from June 2014 to February 2017 (around 54 kWh in total for the entire nine months).
After the Linky meter, her use was calculated to be at 275 kWh for the period February 28, 2017 to April 28, 2018 (three months) - more than 15 times' more.
After the case, to the end of August 2018, her actual usage had been calculated at 36 kWh in total.
