Today, CEER publishes its Report on Innovative Business Models and Consumer Protection Challenges. The evolving technological developments and digitalisation trends in Europe’s energy markets have given rise to innovative business models and new consumer protection challenges. This report seeks to identify and describe some of these emerging business models and suggests what appropriate regulatory action may be required to protect consumers in line with the 2030 CEER-BEUC Vision for Energy Consumers – LET’S ASPIRE.

The report analyses four core challenges for consumer protection in this new environment, putting forward actionable recommendations for each identified challenge:

• New (market) entrants’ access to the energy markets;
• Ensuring sufficient consumer choice and variety in energy products and services, particularly in light of potential principal-agent issues;
• The implications of self-consumption, for instance, on balancing rules and the business architecture itself; and
• Data access (by consumers and companies) and data protection.