CovaU Pty Ltd

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has accepted a court enforceable undertaking from CovaU Pty Ltd (CovaU) in relation to customer communications CovaU sent to residential and small business customers that did not state certain information required under the Competition and Consumer (Industry Code – Electricity Retail) Regulations 2019 (the Code). CovaU has admitted that by sending the communications without the required information, it was likely to have contravened section 12(2) of the Code.

CovaU is an electricity and gas retailer operating in Australia and based in Sydney, New South Wales. CovaU is authorised under the National Energy Retail Law to sell electricity to residential and small business customers in New South Wales, South Australia, and South East Queensland.

On 30 May 2022, CovaU sent price change communications to 1083 customers (across seven different tariff types) in three distribution regions in New South Wales, South Australia and South East Queensland (the Price Change Communications) that did not state the following information required pursuant to section 12 of the Code:

a. the comparison percentage;

b. the lowest possible price;

c. the applicable distribution region; and

d. the type of small customer.

(the Code Information).

By omitting the required Code Information from the Price Change Communications sent to small customers, the ACCC considers that CovaU contravened section 12(2) of the Code on each occasion that it sent the Price Change Communication to a customer.

In response to the ACCC’s concerns, CovaU has admitted that the Price Change Communications sent to small customers likely contravened section 12(2) of the Code. CovaU has provided the ACCC with a section 87B undertaking that it will:

• when communicating offered prices to its customers, state all matters required by the Code, which includes the Code Information;
• send corrective communications to its customers who received a Price Change Communication; and
• establish and maintain a compliance program in accordance with the requirements set out in Annexure A to undertake to appoint a compliance officer, issue a compliance policy and compliance reports and to provide compliance program documents to the ACCC.

CovaU has also paid three infringement notices with a total penalty of $33,300, issued by the ACCC under section 51ACD(1) of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.