Opus Energy agrees redress after 20 years of overcharging
By Josh White
Date: Wednesday 13 Nov 2024
(Sharecast News) - Opus Energy has agreed to pay over £7m in compensation after overcharging nearly 88,000 business customers due to long-standing billing errors, Ofgem announced on Wednesday.
The regulator said the non-domestic energy supplier discovered two faults in its billing system, which resulted in customers either being placed on incorrect tariffs or charged for duplicated billing periods.
It said the issues spanned a 20-year period from 2003 to 2023.
Following an internal audit that uncovered the overcharging, Opus Energy reported itself to Ofgem.
In response, the company committed to refunding affected customers and addressing the system faults.
While the vast majority of impacted customers were overcharged by less than £50, one case saw a single business customer overpay by £102,000, which had since been refunded.
Opus Energy had earmarked £5.5m for refunds to current and former customers, while an additional £1.56m would be paid in goodwill and redress, with any unclaimed amounts and refunds under £2.50 allocated to the Energy Redress Fund.
The company said all currently active customer accounts had already been refunded, adding that it would reach out to former customers where refunds were due.
Ofgem acknowledged Opus Energy's proactive engagement and cooperation in resolving the issue, noting that a higher penalty would have been imposed had the company failed to act swiftly.
The regulator confirmed that Opus Energy's handling of the overcharging was taken into account when deciding on the redress package.
"All energy consumers should be able to trust their supplier to provide accurate bills and charge them only what they owe," said Jacqui Gehrmann, deputy director of retail compliance at Ofgem.
"While things can go wrong, we expect suppliers to identify issues quickly. So, it's concerning that these billing issues weren't spotted sooner."
Gehrmann said many businesses had struggled with the high cost of energy in recent years, adding that any instance of a customer overpaying, no matter how small, was unacceptable.
"We've worked closely with Opus Energy in recent months to ensure the issues are rectified, and that customers affected are refunded and compensated swiftly."
Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
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