In brief
- From 1 January 2027, every electricity or natural gas supplier must accept customer complaints through five channels: in writing at the contact point, by telephone, by e-mail, through an online form and by post. The complaint is filed on a single form, identical at every supplier, and the registration number reaches the customer no later than the second working day after the completed form arrives.
- Every supplier is given a quarterly score, the complaint handling index (IGP), and a colour on a six-step scale running from red to green. The colour is to appear in the offer comparison tools of the National Energy Regulatory Authority, which is exactly where a person looks before signing a contract. The score is set by reference to the weakest suppliers on the market, not against a fixed quality threshold.
- The order was published on 9 October 2026 and enters into force on 1 January 2027, so suppliers have 84 days to prepare. Until then the 2015 procedure stays in force, and the report for 1 July-31 December 2026 is still drawn up under it, with a deadline of 31 January 2027.
Published: Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 849 of 9 October 2026, pages 6-11
In force from: 1 January 2027, the date expressly set by Article 5 of the order
From 1 January 2027, the complaint a person makes to their electricity or natural gas supplier enters a procedure that is identical at every supplier in the country. Order no. 61/2026 of the President of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE), the institution that regulates the energy market, approves a framework procedure that fixes the channels through which a complaint is filed, the form it goes on, how long the customer waits for the registration number and what exactly the supplier has to publish on its website. On the same market, earlier this month, the reimbursement of the energy compensation was also settled, with 60% paid to suppliers in advance. The act was signed in Bucharest on 6 October 2026, published three days later and repeals, also from 1 January 2027, the procedure approved by Order no. 16/2015 of the President of ANRE.
The part with the greatest effect on the market sits in Chapter III. Every quarter ANRE calculates, for each supplier separately, an index for the handling of final customers’ complaints, abbreviated IGP, and assigns it a colour on a six-step scale. The colour is to be displayed in the applications „Comparison tool for standard electricity supply offers” and „Comparison tool for standard natural gas supply offers”. That the display is new can be read in the text of the order itself: Article 25(5) provides that, until the two applications acquire the necessary functions, ANRE publishes the IGP values on its own website.
What it changes in practice
Five mandatory channels for filing. Article 4 lists the ways in which the supplier is obliged to receive complaints: filing in writing at the single contact points, a call centre, an e-mail address, an online form and the post. These are not alternatives for the supplier to choose from, but a list each one has to cover in full.
Eleven pieces of information on the website, in a visible place. Article 5 of the procedure requires the supplier to publish on its own website, with a direct link and a self-explanatory name, and at all single contact points: the contact details and the address dedicated to complaints; the address of the physical contact point, the number of the contact centre, the e-mail address and the link to the online form; the timetable for meetings with the public, with the position held, the day and the time slot, those meetings being held by appointment; the ANRE framework procedure; the seven categories of complaint in Article 2 of the procedure, each with its statutory filing deadline, where one exists, and with its statutory resolution deadline; the right to turn to ANRE, with the authority’s contact details; the right to other out-of-court procedures; the right to go to court; the way damages and compensation are granted; the way complaints are submitted, registered, investigated and resolved; the answers to frequently asked questions.
One form and one register. The complaint registration form, set out in Annex no. 1, has to be made available on paper and in electronic format, at all contact points and on the website. The customer fills in section A, the identification details, and section B, the problem complained of and the supporting documents; section C is filled in by the supplier, with its answer and the reasons for it. Article 7 obliges the supplier, on request, to give the customer guidance at least on identifying the details and summarising the problems. The complaint is then entered in the „Single register of final customers’ complaints”, with the thirteen columns of Annex no. 2, from the way it was received through to whether the answer came within the deadline, yes or no.
A firm deadline, but only for the acknowledgement. Article 10 requires the supplier to send the registration number and date immediately after registration, and in any case no later than the second working day from the date the completed form was received. The deadline for the answer itself is not in this procedure: Article 14 refers to the performance standard for the supply activity, approved by Order no. 83/2021 of the President of ANRE.
A well-founded complaint obliges the supplier to put things right. Article 16(a) provides that, where the complaint is well-founded, the supplier adopts the conclusion of its own analysis and is obliged to restore the final customer’s rights, including by refunding or offsetting the amounts actually owed. If the complaint is unfounded, the supplier draws up an answer saying so.
Three ways further, if the answer does not satisfy. A customer who does not accept the solution can turn to ANRE, under the procedure approved by Order no. 194/2020 of the President of ANRE; a customer who receives no answer within the statutory deadline can do the same, and the absence of an answer triggers the supplier’s obligation set out in the performance standard (Article 17). Out-of-court dispute resolution, under Government Ordinance no. 38/2015, has to be completed within 90 days, and the right to go to court remains untouched (Article 26).
Quarterly public reports. Under Article 25, the management of each supplier is obliged to review its complaint handling every quarter and to decide on corrective measures. The report is published on the supplier’s own website and uploaded, separately for electricity and for natural gas, to an online platform made available by ANRE, within one month of the end of the quarter. It covers the breakdown of complaints by the way they were received and by type of customer, household or non-household (Annex no. 3), the breakdown by category, with the complaints resolved and not resolved within the deadline (Annex no. 4), and a summary of how they were handled together with the corrective measures (Annex no. 5). Until the platform is developed, the reports are sent in editable Excel format to anre@anre.ro and raportariplangeri@anre.ro.
The score and the colour. The index is calculated for each supplier from three quantities: the number of complaints about that supplier that reached ANRE, the number of well-founded complaints that reached the supplier and the number of well-founded complaints not resolved within the deadline. The formula in Article 21(2) is IGP = 100 − 100 × (0.5 × R/R(95%) + 0.3 × P/P(95%) + 0.2 × N/N(95%)), where R and P are measured against the supplier’s total number of customers, N against the total number of well-founded complaints, and R(95%), P(95%) and N(95%) are the 95th percentiles of the same indicators across the whole market. The colours, set by Article 24(1), move in ten-point steps: below 50 red, from 50 to 60 light red, from 60 to 70 yellow, from 70 to 80 light yellow, from 80 to 90 light green, from 90 upwards green. Together with the values, ANRE also publishes the percentiles used in the calculation, so the result can be reproduced by anyone.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
The text being replaced is the framework procedure approved by Order no. 16/2015 of the President of ANRE, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 193 of 23 March 2015. It ceases to be in force on 1 January 2027, 11 years and 9 months after publication, and the repeal and the entry into force of the new text happen on the same day, so not a single day is left without a procedure.
The reporting rhythm doubles. Article 3 of the order shows which report is the last one drawn up under the old rules: the one for 1 July-31 December 2026, a half-year of 184 days, to be published and sent to ANRE by 31 January 2027. The new procedure works on quarters that start on 1 January of each year, with the same deadline of one month from the end of the period (Article 25(4)). The result is a move from two reports a year to four, and the first report under the new rules covers the quarter 1 January-31 March 2027, with a deadline of 30 April 2027.
Two mechanisms the act provides for do not work yet, and the order admits it itself. A first transition period, in Article 25(5), leaves the IGP values on ANRE’s own website until the offer comparison tools acquire the necessary functions. A second, in paragraph (6), lets the quarterly reports travel by e-mail, in editable Excel files, until the online platform is developed. Neither of the two transitions has an end date.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- One procedure at every supplier, so a customer who switches supplier no longer has to learn from scratch how a complaint is made.
- One form, on paper and in electronic format, plus the supplier’s duty to give guidance on filling it in, at least on identifying the details and summarising the problem (Article 7).
- The registration number reaches the customer no later than the second working day, so the complaint leaves a written trace to build on (Article 10).
- The eleven pieces of information in Article 5 of the procedure oblige the supplier to publish, for each category of complaint, the statutory resolution deadline, which is precisely the information the procedure itself does not contain.
- The colour in the comparison tools puts quality next to price at the moment a person chooses, not afterwards (Article 24(2)).
- A well-founded complaint carries an obligation, not an option: the customer’s rights are restored, including by refunding or offsetting the amounts actually owed (Article 16(a)).
- ANRE publishes the percentiles R(95%), P(95%) and N(95%) used in the calculation, so each supplier’s score can be checked from outside (Article 24(3)).
What remains a problem
- The deadline within which the supplier has to answer sits in a different order, Order no. 83/2021 of the President of ANRE (Article 14), not in the procedure approved now.
- The score measures position on the market, not quality: all three quantities are divided by the market’s 95th percentile, so a supplier can change colour without changing its own figures.
- Two of the three components of the score are built from the complaints the supplier itself classifies as well-founded (Article 16).
- The text obliging ANRE to publish the IGP values, Article 25(5), sets no deadline; it says only „quarterly”.
- Article 11(4) allows the supplier to close without an answer the complaints it considers written in inappropriate language or that fail to state the situation complained of, and the procedure provides no way of challenging that closure.
- Annexes no. 4 and no. 5 do not use the same category names as Article 2 of the procedure, although the report has to follow both.
- The two transition periods in Article 25(5) and (6) have no end date, so the display in the comparison tools and the online platform can be delayed indefinitely.
Practical advice
- Ask for the registration number and keep it. Article 10 obliges the supplier to send it no later than the second working day from the receipt of the completed form, and without it you have nothing to start from if you end up at ANRE.
- Use the form in Annex no. 1, not a free-form request. Sections A and B are filled in by the customer, and if you do not know what to write, the supplier is obliged to help you identify the details and summarise the problem (Article 7).
- Attach the documents from the start. The analysis is carried out on the basis of the documents and information available to the supplier (Article 12), so whatever you do not send can be missing from it.
- Do not resend the same complaint without new arguments. Complaints on the same subject are joined into a single answer (Article 11(2)), and a repeated complaint without additional documents is closed with no more than a notice to its author (Article 11(3)).
- Write without insults and say clearly what you are complaining about. Complaints in inappropriate language and those that fail to state the situation complained of are closed without an answer (Article 11(4)).
- If you receive no answer within the deadline, or you do not accept the solution, go to ANRE, under the procedure in Order no. 194/2020 of the President of ANRE (Article 17). Out-of-court resolution has a 90-day deadline, and your right to go to court stays intact (Article 26).
- When you compare offers, read the supplier’s colour as a position in a ranking, not as a quality mark. Green means the supplier sits well below the level of the weakest on the market, not that it has no complaints.
Frequently asked questions
When does the new procedure start to apply?
Through which channels can I file a complaint with my energy supplier?
How long does the supplier have to answer me?
What does the colour shown next to a supplier mean?
What can I do if I am not satisfied with the supplier’s answer?
If my complaint is well-founded, will the supplier give me my money back?
Will complaints filed in 2026 be dealt with under the new rules?
Where will each supplier’s score be published?
Errors and inconsistencies in the published text
- Article 2 of the procedure against Annexes no. 4 and no. 5, positions 4, 5 and 6. Article 25(2)(b) requires the supplier to report the number of complaints „defalcat pe categoriile de plângeri stabilite la art. 2, conform anexei nr. 4”, that is, broken down by the categories of complaint laid down in that article and in accordance with that annex, so in one and the same sentence it points to two lists that have to coincide. They do not coincide. Article 2(d) defines the fourth category as „procedura, etapele și documentele necesare privind schimbarea furnizorului”, the procedure, the steps and the documents needed for switching supplier, whereas Annexes no. 4 and no. 5 put at position 4 „Acordarea dreptului de schimbare a furnizorului”, the granting of the right to switch supplier: the first concerns information about how a supplier is switched, the second concerns a refusal or a delay in the switch, and a complaint on that subject lands in a different row depending on which text the supplier follows. At positions 5 and 6 the difference lies in the nature of the rules invoked: Article 2(e) and (f) speak of „reglementările în vigoare”, the regulations in force, while the annexes speak of „cerințele legislației în vigoare” and „nerespectarea legislației în vigoare”, the requirements of the legislation in force and failure to comply with the legislation in force, expressions the act nowhere declares equivalent. By way of comparison, Annex no. 3 reproduces faithfully the five ways of receiving complaints from Article 4, which shows that alignment was the intention. The consequence is that the quarterly reports of two suppliers acting in good faith can distribute the same complaints differently, and the published figures are not comparable with one another.
Editorial analysis
The problem the act solves is real and old: until now, a person who wanted to complain about a bill had to learn each supplier’s rules separately, and the most fragile step, the proof that the complaint had been received, depended on goodwill. The procedure covers it with a firm deadline, the second working day, and with a form that is identical at every supplier. The list of eleven pieces of information in Article 5 of the procedure is probably the part with the highest immediate return: it obliges the supplier to publish, for each of the seven categories of complaint, the statutory resolution deadline, which is exactly the information the procedure itself does not contain and which Article 14 sends off to another order.
The complaint handling index, though, is worth reading with the formula in front of you, because its scale does not say what it appears to say. IGP = 100 − 100 × (0.5 × R/R(95%) + 0.3 × P/P(95%) + 0.2 × N/N(95%)), and each of the three ratios is divided by the market’s 95th percentile. Since the three weights add up to exactly 1, a supplier whose three quantities land precisely on the 95th percentile scores 0 points. One sitting at half that level scores exactly 50, the very threshold between red and light red in Article 24(1). And to reach green, at 90 points, a supplier needs quantities at one tenth of the level of the 95th percentile. The scale therefore has a consequence the text does not announce: if the whole market gets worse in the same proportion, the percentiles rise with it, the ratios stay where they were and no colour moves. Nor does the scale have a floor: a supplier above the 95th percentile on all three quantities gets a negative IGP, and red covers 49 points and minus 50 alike.
The second observation concerns who does the counting. Of the three components, only R, the complaints that reached ANRE, is measured by someone other than the supplier being scored, and it carries 0.5 of the index. P and N are both built from well-founded complaints, and Article 16 leaves it to the supplier to classify a complaint as well-founded or unfounded; Article 11(4) also allows it to close without an answer the complaints it considers written in inappropriate language or insufficiently specified. The procedure provides no check on these figures before they enter the calculation. Half the score is therefore independent, and the other half comes from the records of the party being scored.
The third observation concerns time. Under Article 25(4), suppliers have one month from the end of the quarter to publish and upload the reports, while Article 22(1) gives ANRE one month from the end of the period analysed to publish the complaints situation, for „the quarter preceding the one for which the report is made”. Following that wording, a complaint filed on 1 October 2027 only makes it into a figure published on 30 April 2028, 212 days later. Article 25(5), on the other hand, the only text obliging ANRE to publish the IGP values, contains no deadline at all, just the word „quarterly”. The figure that colours a supplier in the comparison tool, the only one that reaches the buyer’s eyes, is also the only figure in the whole procedure with no date attached to it.
What should be changed
- The same category names in Article 2 of the procedure and in Annexes no. 4 and no. 5. Two suppliers’ reports would become comparable, and a complaint about a refusal to switch supplier would land in the same row, whichever text the person filling in the report is reading.
- An explicit deadline for publishing the IGP values, in Article 25(5). The colour would appear on a known date, and a customer opening the comparison tool would know whether the figure comes from the last completed quarter or from two quarters back.
- A check on the data reported by the supplier before it enters the index. The 0.5 of the weighting that rests on the supplier’s own records could no longer be reduced by classifying a complaint as unfounded or by closing it.
- An absolute figure displayed next to the colour, for example well-founded complaints per 1,000 customers. If the market gets worse as a whole, that figure would show it, while the colour, built on percentiles, stays where it is.
- One more step below 50 points, or a lower limit for the index. The weakest suppliers would no longer be shown in the same way as one sitting a point below the threshold, and the differences between them would become visible in the comparison tool.
- An explicit rule for the complaints closed under Article 11(3) and (4). It would be clear whether a complaint closed without an answer counts in the „resolved within the statutory deadline” row of Annex no. 4, and closing a complaint could no longer improve the index.
Original text of the legal act
The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.
The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania
Official Gazette of Romania no. 849 of 9 October 2026, pages 6-11 16 pages PDF, 122 KB the act starts on page 6
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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.