CONSUMER group CHOICE has submitted its first designated complaint to the ACCC, asking the regulator to investigate energy retailers for potentially misleading consumers through how they describe and promote plans.
CHOICE CEO, Ashley de Silva, said the complaint focuses on how energy retailers are describing energy plans.
“It shouldn’t be this hard to know if you’re being ripped off on your energy bill,” Mr de Silva said. “That’s why CHOICE is making its first official ‘super complaint’ to the ACCC about the way energy retailers are describing energy plans.
“We’re calling on the ACCC to enforce the law with strong court action to put an end to these dodgy practices costing consumers money.”
As part of the complaint, CHOICE collected almost 400 energy bills from supporters between January and March 2025.
The analysis revealed many retailers were re-using identical names for energy plans, despite offering them at different prices.
This could be seen on bills in the ‘Could you save money on another plan?’ section, which retailers are required to include in bills to customers.
Several bills informed consumers they could save money by switching to a plan with the same name as their existing plan.
Many consumers reading this information were led to believe they were already on the best plan because the names were identical, potentially missing out on savings as a result.
“Amongst the energy bills we collected, we found 64 examples of retailers telling consumers to switch to a plan with the same name,” Mr de Silva said.
“Across these 64 examples, people could have saved an average of $171 annually had they switched to the cheaper plan, even though it had the same name.
“The highest potential savings amongst these examples was $588 per year,” he said.
“The potential impact of this practice is significant. CHOICE estimates that reusing identical names for plans with differing prices could, in aggregate, be costing consumers approximately $65 million in savings.”
