Assessment of the Legal and Institutional Framework for the Protection of Consumers in the Ethiopian Electric Utility Services: The Case of North Addis Ababa District Service Center No.5

Abstract

The quality of legal and institutional framework of consumer protection determines the effectiveness of consumer protection in the sector. The main objective of this thesis was hence to examine the legal and institutional protection of consumers in Ethiopia's electricity sector. While the electricity sector have been selected for special treatment by consumer protection law because of its unique importance to society. Ethiopia has not yet introduced a comprehensive tailored consumer protection laws for electricity consumers, and safeguards were only made with generic consumer laws. Thus, in the light of the international benchmarks, the Ethiopia's consumer laws did not address the particular characteristics of electricity consumers. The thesis argues that current Ethiopian law exhibits several normative gaps that undermine electric service consumer rights. Among others, the country fails to enact a comprehensive tailored law to protect vulnerable consumer rights in the electricity service, to establish a structurally independent regulator, and consumer civil association representation in the regulator. In addition, the modest survey of the practice shows there was an awareness gap among consumers about their own rights in the industry. Furthermore, the Ethiopian Electric Utility/EEU/ fails to have disclosure terms and information gap service agreement with its customers, and the contract is an adhesive in nature that does not include the rights of consumers in a clear manner which needs amendment. Therefore, the government, the EEU, consumers associations and other stakeholders should take the necessary policy and legal measures to address those critical gaps