EnergyAustralia breached retail code, consumer law: ACCC
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The news: The ACCC has launched legal action against EnergyAustralia for allegedly breaching the Electricity Retail Code and Australian Consumer Law when notifying its customers of impending price changes. It also alleges EnergyAustralia made false or misleading representations in the estimates of annual costs that it provided to customers in price change notices, in breach of Australian Consumer Law.
The numbers: The ACCC alleges that between June and September 2022, EnergyAustralia breached the Code by failing to state the ‘lowest possible price’ when sending price change notices to customers. During that time, EnergyAustralia published 27 electricity price offers on its website. The ACCC says EnergyAustralia breached the Code by failing to state the lowest possible price, as well as failing to state the percentage difference to the reference price, which is a benchmark price set by the government.
The context: The Electricity Retail Code requires electricity retailers to communicate price information in a simple and standardised way, so consumers and small businesses can more easily compare plans across different energy companies. Retailers are required to state the percentage difference between their offer and the reference price in consumer communications, in order to provide a consistent benchmark.
What they said: “With electricity prices increasing, and many Australians looking for a better deal, it’s crucial that the information people receive from their energy company is correct and can be relied upon,” ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.
“Correspondence from energy companies often contains complex information that is hard for consumers to decipher, which is precisely the problem that the Electricity Retail Code was introduced to deal with.
The source: ACCC media release
