ARMS To Refund Overpaid Consumers, Company In Breach Of Law When Calculating Bills

A court has ruled that ARMS, Malta’s energy billing company, breached the law when calculating bills. And as a result, they must refund two overpaid consumers.

The court’s judgment came in the wake of years of consumers’ complaints about the company’s billing system.

The case began in 2017, as two Maltese citizens – Darren Cordina and Melvin Polidano – accused authorities of breaching the law because ARMS issued their bill on a pro-rata basis rather than on a yearly cumulative consumption.

This not only resulted in overcharging for energy consumption. But it was also in breach of a law that states that tariffs for residential homes should be based on cumulative consumption (Subsidiary Legislation 545.01).

After filing a judicial protest, ARMS did not accept to revise the tariff, or even acknowledge the issue.

In 2018, Lovin Malta broke down the ways and means ARMS had found a way to charge consumers more for the electricity consumed without informing the public about the new system. You can check it out by clicking here.

Last January, Energy Minister Miriam Dalli said, in Parliament, that a new ARMS billing system would apply from that same month to address “anomalies” in the previous billing system. However, no changes have been seen since then.

Four years on, this court ruling could now set a significant legal precedent on the ongoing controversial issue.

What do you make of the legal outcome?