[en] This note describes how, since 2000/2001, a rise of taxes and para-taxes in some western European countries has partly or fully absorbed the gains resulting from the liberalisation of electricity or heat markets. For the energy industry and customers in these countries the question arises: was liberalisation in vain? Have they been led into error? Customers in accession countries may wonder whether this experience and the agreed minimum energy taxation in the European Union imply tariff increases, particularly for households, beyond those previously expected? Could a strengthening of the role and independence of the regulator lead to more equity in sharing the 'dividend of liberalisation'?(author)