47In that regard, it should be noted, as the Advocate General did in point 50 of his Opinion, that fixed-term, fixed-price electricity supply contracts can protect customers by guaranteeing them a low and stable electricity price, offering consumers the certainty that the costs which they will have to bear will not vary throughout the duration of the contract. However, in order to fulfil its obligations under such contracts, the electricity supplier concerned may have incurred specific costs, which could, for it, have given rise to additional costs as compared with a contract of indefinite duration with no fixed price, particularly for the purpose of hedging against the volatility of costs on the wholesale market. Accordingly, the possibility of permitting the imposition of a contractual penalty on a customer where that customer terminates that type of fixed-term, fixed-price contract early may allow the supplier to offset the particular costs which it incurs as a result of that type of contract, whilst avoiding having to pass on to all customers the financial risk associated with that type of contract, which could lead to higher electricity prices for them and would, in the final analysis, be contrary to the objective of ensuring the most competitive prices for consumers.