Confcommercio, 'increasingly heavy bills for businesses, it is urgent to reduce costs'

Increasingly heavy bills for tertiary companies, with the increases weighing on management costs and competitiveness, and add to weak growth and still uncertain consumption. Electricity spending in the third quarter of 2026 rose to 3.8 billion, and the greatest increases concerned bars (+133%), hotels (+68%) and large outlets (+67%). This was stated by the Confcommercio Energy Observatory, which believes it is "urgent to reduce costs".

In calculating that international energy prices are at the highest of the year (gas +173%, electricity +143%), the association observes that on the gas front the situation is critical: in the third quarter the overall expenditure of tertiary companies stood at 788 million euros (+72.7% compared to 2025), while the average monthly bill exceeded 11 thousand euros (+66.9% on an annual basis).

Confcommercio positively evaluates the possibility of introducing, with the next Bill bis decree, a gas price cap of 58.9 euros/MWh, which "could help contain price increases and reduce bills by up to 10%". It is, however, "a useful tool especially in emergency phases, which cannot replace structural interventions.

In fact, it is necessary to address the root cause of the gap in energy costs between Italy and the main European countries, intervening on the mechanism for the formation of electricity prices and reducing its dependence on gas prices".

Only through "immediate measures and structural reforms" will it be possible to protect the competitiveness of tertiary companies and contain the effects of price increases on the entire economic system.