Ofgem has found that the energy supplier Utilita had been wrongly stopping customers from changing suppliers, costing them a total of £110,000.
Penalty Fine
As a result, Utilita, who provide pre-payment energy tariffs, have been fined a total of £560,000. After refunding the affected customers, they have promised to donate the remainder of the penalty fine to StepChange, the debt charity.
These reports come as Ofgem continue to investigate the energy sector following accusations of limited competition and potential misconduct on the part of various suppliers. Customer complaints have been at high levels in recent times and Ofgem, along with various government bodies, have been doing all they can to try and clean up the market.
Utilita’s “prolonged failure to allow many customers to switch” was described by Ofgem’s senior partner, Anthony Pygram, as “unacceptable.” He said that “the ability to switch suppliers is important for customers and fundamental to a well-functioning energy market.”
Unreserved Apologies
Utilita have apologised though, and their co-operation throughout Ofgem’s investigation has been praised, despite their initial actions being roundly condemned.
A statement released by Utilita said: “we would like to apologise unreservedly to those customers whom we wrongly prevented from switching supplier” and assured investigating bodies that they would be “contacting those customers [affected] as quickly as [they] can to rectify this.”
The statement went on: “our customers are vitally important to us and we have taken quick and decisive action to update and improve our switching procedures. None of the issues investigated remain a problem and all our transfer processes are now compliant.”
Utilita maintained, despite their unreserved apologies, that only 10% of the customers who were stopped from switching were actually left out of pocket
