TBILISI, August 14 – Georgian consumers should automatically receive compensation when electricity, water, gas or internet companies fail to provide reliable service, according to a former government minister.
Kakha Kakhishvili, a former member of parliament and former corrections minister, said utility companies should face direct consequences when they violate consumer rights or fail to meet service standards, Rezonansi reported.
He argued that customers already face penalties when they pay bills late, including fines or service cutoffs, while providers often face no equivalent automatic consequence when service is poor or interrupted.
Kakhishvili said compensation should be credited directly to a customer’s account if a company is responsible for an outage or fails to meet quality standards, without requiring the customer to submit an application or go to court.
He also argued that the company billing the customer should remain responsible even if the problem originated elsewhere in the supply chain.
Economist Merab Janiashvili backed the proposal and said consumers remain poorly protected despite the existence of ombudsmen and regulators in the communications and energy sectors.
Janiashvili accused regulators of failing to hold providers sufficiently accountable and argued that monopolistic conditions in parts of the market have contributed to poor service and high prices.
Lawyer Levan Alapishvili agreed that consumer rights must be protected but questioned the idea of automatic penalties.
He said disputes should be considered by an independent body because an interruption may not always be the provider’s fault. In some cases, for example, infrastructure could be damaged during repair work by another party.
Alapishvili said Georgia already has mechanisms through regulatory bodies and their ombudsmen to examine complaints and issue binding decisions more quickly than courts.
The debate comes after a series of nation-wide electricity blackouts.
