Examples of breaches of the code
Breaching the Electricity Retail Code can have serious consequences, including penalties and other enforcement action.
Some examples of code breaches are:
- offering standing offer prices above the reference price or Default Market Offer
- not providing a comparison to the reference price when communicating prices to customers
- using conditional discounts as the main price related element in advertisements
- failing to keep records.
We have previously issued infringement notices to CovaU Pty Ltd, ReAmped Energy Pty Ltd and Locality Planning Energy Pty Ltd for alleged breaches of the Electricity Retail Code.
We regularly check whether retailers are complying with the code
We can require electricity retailers to provide us with certain information and documents. This helps us understand whether retailers are complying with the code and whether there are compliance issues we need to focus on.
We do these checks on different retailers each year in line with our multi-year schedule.
See Industry code compliance checks for information about the actions we take.
We also use public information to monitor compliance with the code.
We can investigate if we think a retailer has breached the code
One of the ACCC's compliance and enforcement priorities is the pricing and selling of essential services, with a focus on energy.
We may take enforcement action where:
- retailers fail to follow the code
- retailers fail to respond to our concerns or choose not to take steps to fix compliance failures
- the issues go beyond a failure to follow code requirements and involve behaviour that is likely to mislead or deceive consumers.
We have a range of options to ensure compliance with the code. We consider several factors when deciding which option to use.
For more information, see our Compliance and Enforcement Policy.