potential annual savings for households switching to dynamic contracts, depending on consumption patterns.
2025 Monitoring Report
The 2025 Retail Monitoring Report analyses how retail market structures and contract design influence consumers’ ability to engage in flexibility.
Consumers’ active participation in energy markets can help Europe accelerate the transition to clean energy. However, the potential of this consumer (also called demand-side) flexibility remains largely untapped due to the uptake of inflexible contracts, uneven smart meter rollout and limited competition in some retail markets.
What are the regulators' main findings?
- Retail electricity markets stabilised as wholesale prices declined after 2023.
- Lower wholesale prices not fully passed onto consumers. This is mainly due to the prevalence of inflexible contracts, which protected consumers during the energy crisis but now lock them into higher-than-necessary prices.
- Smart meter deployment and data accessibility progress is uneven across the EU. This limits consumers’ ability to adjust their consumption and benefit from lower wholesale electricity prices.
- Households that consume more energy can better capitalise on the energy savings potential when they engage in flexible demand. Households with higher electrification potential (e.g. owners of electric vehicles or with solar PVs) can provide greater flexibility and achieve larger savings, provided that appropriate contract structures and comparison tools are in place.
Key recommendations
The report includes several recommendations to support greater consumer flexibility:
- Complete the rollout of smart meters and ensure consumers and authorised third parties have standardised and secure access to consumption data.
- Facilitate dynamic and time-differentiated offers, including by showing such contracts on accredited price comparison tools.
- Phase out general price interventions while maintaining targeted support for vulnerable consumers.
- Encourage competition and innovation in retail markets to expand consumer choice and engagement.
Looking ahead
The energy transition requires a retail market design that enables consumers to play an active role in system flexibility. Making price signals visible and accessible through appropriate contracts and tools can strengthen efficiency, affordability and the integration of renewables.
A closer link between wholesale and retail markets will help ensure that consumers can contribute to building a decarbonised and resilient electricity system.
Highlights
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Up to €270
-
<30%
smart meter rollout in six Member States slows supplier innovation and limits consumer flexibility.
-
59%
of EU consumers on average remain on flat-price or regulated contracts.
Report
This report:
- analyses how retail contract design and data access affect consumer flexibility and affordability;
- assesses the current uptake of dynamic and flexible offers and level of consumer engagement; and
- provides recommendations to better align retail and wholesale electricity markets so that benefits are passed onto consumers.
Infographic
Interested in the main highlights of the report?
Dashboard
This dashboard provides an overview of retail electricity and gas prices in each EU Member State and Norway.
Country sheets
In July 2025, ACER compiled individual country sheets of energy (electricity and gas) retail markets (for Member States and Norway) showing:
- an overview of contract structures and price types;
- indicators of smart meter deployment; and
- data on consumer engagement with flexibility.
See the electricity country sheets & the gas country sheets.