By Alesha Capone
An energy company has been fined $280,000 for allegedly using door-to-door sales agents to switch Victorians to new energy contracts without their consent.
The Essential Services Commission (ESC) last month issued Alinta Energy with 14 penalty notices for switching customers, in areas including Melton, Wodonga and Truganina, to new contracts without first obtaining each customer’s explicit informed consent.
A statement from the ESC said that: “Between March 2018 and March 2019, three different groups of sales agents acting on behalf of Alinta Energy engaged in fraudulent behaviour, impersonating customers in phone calls to sign them onto energy contracts.”
Commission chairperson Kate Symons said that gaining customers by fraudulent means was completely unacceptable and should be stamped out.
“To rebuild trust in the Victorian energy market consumers must have confidence they will only be switched from one energy retailer to another after they are properly informed and have given their consent to the switch,” she said.
Alinta was penalised for similar breaches in August 2018.
Ms Symons says these latest matters showed that Alinta Energy had failed to stop fraudulent behaviour by door-to-door sales agents acting on its behalf.
“In most of the cases, the company only became aware of the falsified sales when customers called to complain.
“Alinta has demonstrated its fraud prevention controls were deeply flawed and open to exploitation by deceitful sales agents,” she said.
The ESC statement said that Alinta Energy has indicated it will no longer market its energy offers door-to-door in Victoria.
The ESC can issue energy industry penalty notices where it has reason to believe a business has committed an energy industry contravention. The payment of a penalty specified in the energy industry penalty notices is not an admission of a contravention of their retail licences.
