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Under the heading ‘Vulnerable consumers’, Article 45 of Ley 24/2013 del Sector Eléctrico (Law 24/2013 on the electricity sector) of 26 December 2013, in the version applicable to the main proceedings (‘Law 24/2013’), provided: ‘1. Electricity consumers shall be regarded as vulnerable customers if they meet social, consumption and purchasing power characteristics to be determined. In any event, the measure is restricted to natural persons in their habitual residence. The definition of vulnerable consumers and the requirements which they must satisfy, as well as the measures to be adopted for that group, are laid down by regulation by the government. 2. The regulated discount shall apply to vulnerable consumers who meet the social, consumption and purchasing power characteristics determined by Royal Decree of the Council of Ministers. … To that end, a threshold referring to an income indicator per member of the household is set. In any event, the measure is restricted to natural persons in their habitual residence. 3. The regulated discount shall cover the difference between the value of the voluntary price intended for low-usage consumers and a base value, referred to as “tariff of last resort”, and shall be applied by the relevant reference supplier to the invoices of consumers entitled to the regulated discount. The Ministro de Industria, de Energía y de Turismo [(Minister for Industry, Energy and Tourism)], after agreement of the Comisión Delegada del Gobierno para Asuntos Económicos [(Government Delegation for Economic Affairs)], sets the tariff of last resort. 4. The regulated discount shall be treated as a public service obligation within the meaning of Directive [2009/72], and shall be borne by the parent companies of company groups or, where applicable, by companies that simultaneously carry on electricity production, distribution and retail activities. The apportionment percentage of the sums to be financed shall be calculated, for each company group, on the basis of the relationship between, on the one hand, the total of the annual average number of supplies connected to the distribution companies’ distribution networks and the number of customers of the retailers held by the group, and, on the other hand, the total of all the annual average supply and customer values of all the company groups that are to be taken into account for the purposes of that apportionment. That apportionment percentage shall be calculated annually by the Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia [(National Commission on Markets and Competition)], in accordance with the procedure and conditions laid down by regulation. To that end, that commission shall publish on its internet page, in November of each year, information relating to the previous rolling year covering the annual averages of the number of supplies connected to the distribution networks of the distribution companies and the number of customers of the retailers, together with a list of the groups of companies or, where appropriate, of the companies which satisfy the criterion laid down in the first subparagraph of this paragraph. The abovementioned commission shall submit before 1 December of each year a proposal to fix the percentages of financing corresponding to each of the parent companies, which it is for the Minister for Industry, Energy and Tourism to approve by order published in the “Boletín Oficial del Estado”. In any event, the contributions that each of those companies must make shall be paid into a specific deposit account created for that purpose by the administrative body responsible for its management.’