Undertaking date

Undertaking type

s.87B undertaking

Reference number

D13/121644

Section

18, 29(1)(h), 29(1)(i)

Company or individual details

  • Name

    Red Energy Pty Ltd

    ACN

    107 479 372

Undertaking

The ACCC has accepted a section 87B undertaking from Red Energy Pty Ltd following an investigation relating to alleged breaches of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), contained in Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (the Act). Red Energy supplies retail energy to consumers in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales. Red Energy employees conduct telemarketing to generate sales in these States. The ACCC alleged that one of Red Energy's telemarketers falsely represented to consumers that:

• he was calling about the consumer's current energy bill with another energy retailer;

• he was affiliated with the consumer's current energy retailer; and

• he was not calling to sell anything.

Additionally, it was alleged that the Red Energy telemarketer made false representations to consumers that:

• all energy retailers in NSW must charge consumers the same price for retail electricity, when this was not the case, and

• all retail electricity prices in NSW are regulated by government, when this was not the case.

As part of the undertaking Red Energy has admitted that the conduct described above contravened sections 18, 29(1)(h) and 29(1(i) of the ACL. Red Energy will publish a corrective notice and a link to the Australian Energy Regulator's price comparator website Energy Made Easy on the homepage of its website. In addition, Red Energy has undertaken to:

• provide customer rectification for those potentially affected by the conduct of the relevant telemarketer; and

• to review their compliance program to ensure that this type of conduct does not occur again.

Red Energy has also paid four Infringement Notices issued by the ACCC totalling $26,400 for alleged conduct relating to four consumers.