High energy bills and fixed contracts continue to prevail in EU retail energy markets

ACER’s new retail energy markets dashboard offers an interactive, country-by-country view of electricity and gas markets across the EU and Norway. It replaces ACER’s country sheets, bringing together comparable data to explore how retail markets are evolving and how consumers’ behaviour changes alongside the energy transition.

What trends did ACER monitoring find?

With over 270 million electricity and more than 90 million gas customers across the EU and Norway, retail energy markets play an important role in supporting Europe’s energy transition. At the same time, the latest data shows ongoing challenges and significant untapped potential for more active consumer participation.

• Energy bills remain above pre-crisis levels. Retail prices rose sharply after the 2021-2022 energy crisis and remained elevated, with gas prices still nearly 70% higher than before the crisis. On average, EU households spent around €840 on electricity and €1,170 on gas in 2025.
• Household electricity and gas consumption is rising modestly, highlighting the importance of enabling consumers to actively manage their energy use.
• Fixed contracts remain the most common contract type. Around 52% of household electricity customers are on single fixed-price, fixed-term contracts, while only 7% are on dynamic-price contracts, pointing to significant unexploited capacity for demand-side flexibility.
• Smart meter rollout progresses unevenly. 66% of household customers monitored across the EU and Norway have a smart meter. While deployment exceeds 80% in most EU Member States, it remains below 20% in several countries, limiting consumers’ ability to adjust their consumption in real time.

What are the next steps?

The retail energy markets dashboard will be updated annually as new data becomes available, allowing to monitor progress across all indicators.