ACCC's crackdown on energy company for deceptive power bills. Holding them accountable for transparent billing practices.
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By Puneet Soni
Energy Comparison
On July 9, 2018, Proceedings against Amaysim Click Energy’s parent company were announced by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for misleading consumer law and misleading marketing claims on electricity discounts.
VIC and QLD customers were offered a 7% to 29% discount on their energy bills between 2017 and 2018 for pay on-time payments.
As per ACCC, the discounts were applied to their market rate which was higher than the base offers provided in the market and were considered to confuse and mislead consumers.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims told Fair Fax Media, that while this was not the first time it has taken a retailer to court over poor discounting practices, “this is more The savings have given were on the basis of how much the consumer would save with the retailer if they paid their bills on time and not an approximate of savings if they switched from another provider Mr. Sims said.
ACCC was quick to point out that the amount of savings advertised online was misleading and not based on a true representation
The savings and discounts advertised would need to be true representations in order for consumers to make an informed choice about the offered products. Stringent rules were announced by the Australian Energy Market Commission to put a stop to such practices by the retailers
In doing so, the retailer will not be able to increase base rates and provide bigger discounts to counter that these rules are designed specifically to counter retailers inflating the base rate from which they applied a discount, to make discounts appear bigger than they were, which is what Click allegedly have done.
Josh Fryenberg, Federal Environment, and Energy Minister said retailers are being put on notice with these poor discounting practices.
Regulators were disappointed with this incident that keeps on happening provided with a penalty for each breach of the consumer law of around $1.1 million.
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