ACER monitoring reveals limited competition and untapped flexibility in EU retail energy markets

ACER monitoring reveals limited competition and untapped flexibility in EU retail energy markets
What is it about?
ACER’s 2025 retail energy country sheets offer a concise overview of the national electricity and gas markets across EU Member States and Norway. For the first time, the country sheets cover both sectors, presenting:
- market and competition metrics for electricity and gas;
- consumer trends (including contract types, contract switching rates and bill breakdown);
- progress towards enabling more flexible consumers (through smart meter roll-out, prosumer participation, deployment of electric vehicles and heat pumps, and biomethane production); and
- a high-level assessment highlighting each market’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis).
ACER has also updated its retail pricing dashboard, which shows monthly changes in household energy prices across EU Member States and Norway from January 2019 to June 2025.
What are the main findings in retail markets?
Electricity market
- Smart meters, a key enabler for demand-side flexibility, are largely in place across the EU, but roll-out levels vary among EU Member States and Norway. In half of EU Member States, deployment has reached 80%, while in 7, deployment remains below 20% (or no data was provided).
- Although 2024 saw an increased number of hours with low wholesale electricity prices (below €5/MWh), fixed price and/or regulated contracts still dominate in 15 Member States at the household level. This widespread uptake limits consumers’ exposure to real-time price signals, preventing cost savings and hindering more innovative and flexible contracts. The limited adoption of dynamic-price contracts suggests that demand-side flexibility potential remains untapped.
- In 21 Member States, prosumers account for between 1% and 10% of households. The highest shares are observed in Belgium (22%) and the Netherlands (30%).
Gas market
- 82% of residential energy consumption is used for space and water heating, underlining the importance of energy efficiency and building renovation strategies to support decarbonisation.
- A decline in gas demand has been recorded in 21 Member States since 2022, while biomethane production remains relatively low.
Market structure
- Both electricity and gas retail markets show moderate to high concentration across the EU, meaning a small number of suppliers hold a large share of the national market.
- 20 Member States either recorded low switching rates (below 10%) or did not provide data, indicating limited competition or low consumer engagement.
The country sheets complement ACER’s retail Monitoring Report (coming in November).
Retail prices: Latest trends from ACER’s dashboard
ACER’s retail pricing dashboard highlights the main trends in household electricity and gas prices.
Electricity prices across Europe stabilised by June 2025, ending the decline observed since early spring. Spain and Portugal recorded the sharpest monthly rises (+7% and +6%, respectively), followed by more moderate increases in Greece, the Netherlands, Italy and Austria. In contrast, prices declined in Norway (-7%), Estonia (-3%), and in Belgium, Latvia, Sweden and Lithuania (-2%). Most other countries recorded no change. On an annual basis, EU household electricity prices rose by approximately 3%.
Retail gas prices also remained largely stable, with minor monthly changes: Belgium and Portugal registered small increases (+1%), while Italy recorded the largest decrease (-4%), followed by France and Latvia (-2%), and the Netherlands, Estonia and Austria (-1%). While retail gas prices remained unchanged month-on-month in most Member States, retail offers were approximately 7% higher than those available during the same period last year.
What are the main trends in wholesale gas markets? Prices remained elevated year-on-year but showed little monthly change, despite volatility driven by global trade and security shocks. More information is available in ACER’s monitoring report on key developments in gas wholesale markets report, published today.