“Secure damages now!” With such or similarly blatant calls on the Internet, legal tech companies are currently courting electricity and gas customers whose contracts were surprisingly terminated by discount providers, so that the affected households often had to pay significantly higher prices to the local energy suppliers . Two service providers in particular promise to enforce claims for damages because of the costly terminations: “RightNow” and “Veneko”.
The Berlin company “RightNow” was founded in 2016 in response to the diesel scandal as “the central platform for access to law and justice”, according to the self-confident claim. The competitor “Veneko” is no less confident. “We are the only legal tech company that specializes in the energy sector and has many years of experience there,” advertises Tobias Hirt, founder and managing director of Veneko, who prepares lawsuits together with energy consultant Matthias Moeschler.
At the moment, however, RightNow seems to be clearly in the lead in the race for battered electricity and gas customers. “We’re seeing a huge turnout. In the last few weeks, several 10,000 cases have come in,” said Philip Eischet, co-founder and managing director of RightNow, the FAZ competitor Veneko recorded just over 7,000 interested parties last week. “Every week about 1000 are added,” said Hirt.
The market seems to be giving away significantly more complaints. According to Moeschler’s research, there are “several hundred thousand” cases in which electricity and gas customers could demand compensation for the terminations. Eischet assumes that more than a million consumers have claims for damages against Stromio, Gas.de and Grünwelt. These energy suppliers in particular are targeted by the legal techs.
Get up to 2000 euros back
The value of the claims involved in each individual case is comparatively small. There is talk of 30 euros to 2000 euros in individual cases, depending on the size of the household concerned, energy consumption and the remaining term of the terminated contracts. But the crowd does it. RightNow aims to collect a single-digit million amount. “Entrepreneurial risk aspects” are decisive for this limit, said Eischet.
The legal tech company pays terminated customers who assign their potential claims against the discount providers an average of 80 to 100 euros in compensation before the courts have decided on the lawsuits – provided that the purchase of the claims is worthwhile according to RightNow’s calculations. “Customers can keep the amount paid out, regardless of whether our lawsuits are successful.”
Based on previous experience, Eischet assumes that 70 to 90 percent of the electricity customers who submitted the necessary documents could be offered immediate reimbursement. What is paid is the amount that, according to the company’s calculations, could be asserted in court, less a risk deduction, which is calculated in each individual case together with the reimbursement offer using algorithms.
No risk for customers?
Electricity customers who assign their claims to Veneko, on the other hand, only get money if the lawsuits against Stromio and Co are successful or an agreement is reached beforehand. In this case, Veneko charges a success fee of 33 percent, which is deducted from the amount of damages awarded by the court. If the court dismisses the lawsuit, the legal tech company bears the costs. “So our customers don’t take any risks,” said Hirt.