The price cap is expected to cost the government between 10 and 40 billion euros. Due to market price fluctuations, the total costs are highly uncertain. Cabinet and Representatives only want to pay these billions to energy companies based on the purchase prices they pay, with a tiny profit margin additionally.

But determining this reasonable margin is not easy. Jetten has asked the Dutch Consumers and Markets Authority (ACM) supervisory body to do so, but announced last week that it was unable to determine this. Politicians have to make this decision themselves.

The minister has now asked an independent consulting firm to help think of the scheme. He himself would like to see that soon every company will be checking how much gross margin they can charge as well as cost price. Although this will likely not be arranged in January and February.

So this week, Cetin decided that energy companies would receive full compensation through March 1 at the latest. Not the difference between the purchase price and the ceiling but the difference between the consumer price and the ceiling. In general, there are significant concerns about this path. There is a good chance that companies are getting a lot of money from the government unnecessarily.

“As a politician, we promised people to use such a price cap from Jan. 1. Let’s make sure the price cap is in place, let’s not bother people at home with all the trouble in the back,” Gettin said.

He promised to come up with a better arrangement ASAP. “The shorter that period is, the better.”