The Federal Court has ordered EnergyAustralia to pay $14 million in penalties for making misleading statements to hundreds of thousands of consumers about electricity prices, and failing to provide mandatory information required by the Electricity Retail Code (the Code).
EnergyAustralia admitted it had breached the Australian Consumer Law and the Code in its communications sent between 20 June and 12 September 2022 to around 566,000 consumers about electricity prices, by failing to state the lowest possible price in the communications and misrepresenting the estimated annual price of its electricity offer for an “average” customer.
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In addition, EnergyAustralia admitted, that between 1 July and 27 September 2022, it published 27 electricity offers online that failed to state the difference between the reference price and the unconditional price expressed as a percentage of the reference price, or the ‘lowest possible price’ as required under the Code. These offers were viewed about 220,000 times.
“EnergyAustralia breached laws which were designed to help consumers to compare electricity offers and identify the best deal by increasing transparency,” ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.
“EnergyAustralia’s failure to fully inform consumers meant they could not accurately compare offers from competing retailers and may have been denied the opportunity to choose the best deal for them.”
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“Some consumers may also have been misled by EnergyAustralia’s statements into thinking that a price change was less than it actually was, causing them to stay with their existing plan when in fact a different plan may have represented a better deal,” Cass-Gottlieb said.
This conduct occurred when electricity prices were rising and many consumers were looking to switch to cheaper plans.
The Court also ordered EnergyAustralia to review its compliance program and pay a contribution to the ACCC’s costs.
