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A review of Victorian retail energy contract terms and conditions Consumer Action Law Centre Level 7, 459 Little Collins St Melbourne VIC 3000 May 2011 Acknowledgement Consumer Action would like to express its appreciation to the Consumer Utilities Advocacy Centre for funding this project. 1 Contents About Consumer Acton Law Centre .................................................................................. 3 List of abbreviations ........................................................................................................... 5 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ 6 Summary of recommendations .......................................................................................... 6 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 8 Methodology........................................................................................................................ 9 Regulation of Retail Energy Contracts in Victoria .......................................................... 12 Electricity Industry Act 2000 and the Gas Industry Act 2001 ......................................... 12 Energy Retail Code (ERC) ................................................................................................ 13 General consumer protection laws - Fair Trading Act and Trade Practices Act (now Australian Consumer Law) ............................................................................................... 14 Contract structure ............................................................................................................. 17 Matters covered by the Energy Retail Code (ERC) ......................................................... 20 Catch-all terms .................................................................................................................. 20 Specific terms in contracts .............................................................................................. 21 Cancellation notices .................................................................................................. 21 Billing .......................................................................................................................... 22 Adjustment of a bill ....................................................................................................... 22 Over and under charging ............................................................................................. 23 Disputes ....................................................................................................................... 23 Payment methods ...................................................................................................... 23 Late payment fees ...................................................................................................... 23 Refundable advances ................................................................................................ 24 Shortened billing and collection cycles ................................................................... 25 Payment difficulties ................................................................................................... 25 Disconnection ............................................................................................................ 25 Indemnity and limitation of liability .......................................................................... 26 1 APPENDIX 1 – COMPARATIVE TABLES ......................................................................... 32 AGL ............................................................................................................................. 33 Australian Power and Gas ......................................................................................... 43 Click Energy ............................................................................................................... 51 Country Energy .......................................................................................................... 57 Energy Australia ........................................................................................................ 63 Jack Green ................................................................................................................. 69 Neighbourhood Energy ............................................................................................. 75 Origin .......................................................................................................................... 80 Powerdirect ................................................................................................................ 87 Red Energy ................................................................................................................. 93 Simply Energy .......................................................................................................... 102 TRUenergy ................................................................................................................ 110 Victoria Electricity .................................................................................................... 118 2 About Consumer Acton Law Centre The Consumer Action Law Centre (CALC) is a campaign-focused consumer advocacy, litigation and policy organisation. Based in Melbourne, it was formed in 2006 by the merger of the Consumer Law Centre Victoria (CLCV) and the Consumer Credit Legal Service and is funded jointly by Victoria Legal Aid and Consumer Affairs Victoria. As a community legal centre, Consumer Action provides free legal advice and representation to vulnerable and disadvantaged consumers across Victoria, and is the largest specialist consumer legal practice in Australia. As well as working with consumers directly, Consumer Action provides legal assistance and professional training to community workers who advocate on behalf of consumers. Consumer Action is also a nationally-recognised and influential policy and research body, pursuing a law reform agenda across a range of important consumer issues at a governmental level, in the media, and in the community directly. Consumer Action is represented on a number of national and state-based regulators' consumer consultative committees, including the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian Energy Regulator and the Essential Services Commission (Victoria) as well as a range of government, industry and community sector working groups, Ministerial roundtables, boards, consultative committees and roundtables. Since September 2009, Consumer Action has also operated a new service, MoneyHelp, a not-for-profit financial counselling service funded by the Victorian Government to provide free, confidential and independent financial advice to Victorians with changed financial circumstances due to job loss or reduction in working hours, or experiencing mortgage or rental stress as a result of the current economic climate. Consumer Action (and through its predecessor CLCV) has been actively involved in energy advocacy work in Victoria and nationally since the 1990s. The CLCV sought funding for the commissioning of reports, research and analysis on utility regulation as early as 1993 and released several reports into energy and water regulation in the mid 1990s.1 In mid-1999 the CLCV successfully sought funding to develop and deliver a key capacity building project, the Victorian Essential Services Consumer Advocacy Project (VESCAP), funded by the Myer Foundation, Reichstein Foundation and the Office of the Regulator-General (now the Essential Services Commission of Victoria), which commenced in August 1999. The VESCAP project identified and developed key consumer networks to contribute to energy debates in Victoria, informed those debates through a series of seminars, and developed a comprehensive Essential Services Resource Kit which was launched in June 2002 during the introduction of full retail contestability in Victoria‟s energy markets. The kit informed workers about the minimum standards frameworks for electricity and gas from a practical perspective and had sixteen sections, including on Marketing; Contracts for supply; 1 Consumer Law Centre Victoria, An Analysis of the Protection of Consumers and Public Interest, May 1995. Benson, T (ed.), Voices in the Market: Consumer Consultation and Advocacy in an Era of Competition, Consumer Law Centre, October 1995. Walker, D. Consumer Benchmarks for Energy and Water: A Consumer Perspective of Regulation and the Service Industry, Public Utilities Reform Project, Consumer Law Centre, November 1996. 3 Refundable advances; Concessions; Payment options; Connection and Disconnection; Transferring; and Managing consumption. Regulation and policy development relating to energy markets was becoming increasing national, so since June 2003 Consumer Action (formerly CLCV) has received funding for national energy advocacy from the Consumer Advocacy Panel (formerly the National Electricity Code Administrator Advocacy Panel. Over this time we have provided key consumer input into important national and Victorian energy regulatory processes for consumers, including the current Victorian smart meter rollout and the national smart meter program, initiatives relating to improved energy price and product information