In order to protect the rights of our Clients, the Firm’s lawyers have proven the possibility of successfully appealing against unlawful decisions of gas distribution system operators, hereinafter referred to as “GDS Operators”, which are made without proper legal grounds and in violation of the procedure established by the Gas Distribution Systems Code, hereinafter referred to as the “GDS Code”.
An additional complexity of the above-mentioned appeal procedure is that the GDS Code, which was approved by the decision of the NEURC (National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission), in our opinion, is not balanced with respect to consumer rights and the powers of GDS Operators. Due to the peculiarities of the prescribed procedure, the lack of legal knowledge and experience in applying the norms of the GDS Code, the Consumer very often, through no fault of his own, finds himself in the position of a debtor or unable to exercise consumer rights.
Among other things, it is necessary to take into account the fact that Acts on detected violations are drawn up by GDS Operators, including in order to minimize their own economic losses by shifting property costs to consumers, thus compensating for any shortcomings in the organization of their own work. It is these Acts that become the basis for the subsequent adoption by the same GDS Operators of decisions to determine monetary obligations.
Thus, the imperfection of regulatory regulation and the interest of GDS Operators in additional income create ample opportunities for abuses that are directed against the property interests of Consumers.
Of particular importance in the above cases is the moment when the Firm and its specialists were involved in providing legal assistance in order to protect the rights of the gas consumer. In our opinion, it is optimal to involve the Firm immediately (on the same day) after events that may in the future cause additional accrual of obligations, detection of unauthorized operation of measuring instruments (MTU), metering units (MU), etc. In this case, the Firm’s lawyers will be able to provide high-quality and proper legal support for all procedures provided for by the GDS Code.
Otherwise, the inexperience of the GDS Operator’s employees, the consumer’s passivity or significant violations by him of the procedure specified in the GDS Code may lead to the impossibility of appealing the GDS Operator’s decisions.
In addition to the above, the Firm’s lawyers have significant experience in appealing other decisions of GDS operators, including unlawful restriction of consumer access to the gas distribution network.
