Four suppliers are to pay refund customers, after Ofgem found they were overcharging customers with Restricted Meter Infrastructure (RMI).
All suppliers with more than 50,000 customers must offer relevant tariffs to customers with RMI, without charging multiple standing charges if the customer has multiple meters as part of Standard Licence Condition (“SLC”) 22G.
But having reviewed four suppliers compliance with SLC 22G, Ofgem found they were charging multiple standing charges to 1,665 customers between 2017 and 2020.
The suppliers have refunded the impacted customers, paying out £126,947.25 collectively in total refunds. Additionally, they have compensated customers to the tune of £44,298.16 and made assurances that this will not happen again.
|
Supplier |
No. of customers |
Total refunds |
Total goodwill |
|
EDF |
487 |
£52,987.87 |
£18,851.00 |
|
Igloo Energy |
364 |
£22,641.00 |
£8,880.00 |
|
OVO Energy |
35 |
£6,325.04 |
£977.16 |
|
SO Energy |
779 |
£44,993.34 |
£15,590.00 |
Ofgem began to look into the treatment of customers with RMI following an investigation by the Consumer and Markets Authority in 2016, that found those customers faced both actual and perceived barriers. It found that many of the customer could have been better off on a competitively priced single tariff, but that there were barriers to switching.
Additionally, many of those customers were identified as being in vulnerable situations.
The regulator expects all relevant suppliers to meet the requirements laid out in the Consumer and Markets Authority’s Remedy, including signposting RMI customers to all relevant tariffs, ensuring their requests for a single rate tariff is carried out, and ensuring they are treated the same as all single rate customers on those tariffs.
