More transparent bills but 24-hour changeover delay: here are all the latest news

More transparency on bill prices, a ban on suppliers unilaterally changing contractual and term conditions, and a stop to the possibility of terminating contracts before they expire. But also the possible postponement of the 24-hour change of supplier that was supposed to be triggered on 1 January 2026 and whose timeframe seems set to lengthen if there are no further changes on this piece.

These are some of the novelties contained in the legislative decree implementing the 'Market Design' directive, which was preliminarily approved a few days ago by the Council of Ministers at the proposal of the head of the Ministry for the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin. "This measure confirms the government's desire to place the citizen at the centre of energy choices, as a conscious consumer and at the same time oriented towards the sharing of renewable energy, therefore a fundamental interpreter of the transition," was Pichetto Fratin's comment. But let us see in detail what could change for energy bills once the legislative decree reaches the finishing line.

Among the most important innovations introduced by the measure is the strengthening of the informative transparency of bills, on which, as is well known, the Authority for Energy, Networks and the Environment has already been working for some time. Thus, the measure aims to strengthen a direction already taken by expanding what is provided for in Article 5 of Decree 210 of 2021, which establishes the contractual rights of end customers. Basically, it is stipulated that the range of information that electricity bills must indicate must be expanded not only on the supplier side (which will have to make its data and consumer assistance contacts more explicit) but also on the price side with specifications on the type and individual components, but also on promotions and additional services. All of these, it is worth reiterating, are at the heart of the new 2.0 bill for electricity and gas desired by the Authority and which the decree further emphasises by indicating that transparency must be further improved.

Another important passage within the provision is also contained in the decree, which complements the contractual rights of users by intervening on another much-debated issue: the decree states, in fact, that suppliers will not be able to unilaterally change the economic conditions and duration of fixed-term and fixed-price electricity supply contracts. Nor may contracts be terminated before they expire.

Another aspect that could change according to the indications contained in the legislative decree is the timing of the 24-hour switchover that was supposed to take place by 1 January 2026. The change is put in black and white between the folds of the measure where it intervenes on Article 7 of Decree 210, which had precisely introduced the speeding up of the timeline to bring Italy into line with the demands of Europe. Currently, the actual switchover to the new vendor normally takes between one and two months. Now, with the new decree, the time to shorten the duration of the switchover could lengthen since the new deadline is 'by 2026' and no longer by the end of this year.