Ace Breaking News – The breaches affected almost 670,000 customers, including others experiencing payment difficulty.

Origin Energy has been ordered to pay $17.6 million after admitting to breaches of Victoria’s energy rules that affected nearly 670,000 gas and electricity customers.

In the Supreme Court of Victoria, Origin Energy admitted to not providing adequate “best offer” messaging to more than 655,000 customers, and failing to provide adequate support to another 6,800 having payment difficulty.

It also admitted to overcharging 78 customers, recovering undercharged amounts from 411 customers beyond a four-month back-billing limit, and failing to maintain information on 10 customers undergoing life support.

These breaches occurred between December 2021 and May 2023.

In his judgement handed down on Friday, Justice Michael Osborne said Origin admitted it was liable before the proceedings began, but said it was important that the penalty had “sufficient sting in it”.

Essential Services Commission chairperson and commissioner Gerard Brody said the regulator took Origin to court and pushed for “significant penalties” to “send a message”. 

“While today’s decision will be felt most directly by Origin, it will reverberate in the boardrooms of all energy retailers,” he said. 

Gerard Brody said the Essential Services Commission pushed for significant penalties. (ABC News: Billy Draper)normal

“And the message is simple – compliance with consumer protections requires investment and attention, it cannot be an afterthought.” 

“Retailers play a central and proactive role in offering customers support and strong consumer protections – that’s a non-negotiable for every business operating in the Victorian market.”

Origin issues apology

Origin retail executive general manager Jon Briskin apologised for the breaches.

“We are sorry we didn’t meet our regulatory obligations for these customers, and we are committed to doing better with significant resources dedicated towards improving compliance performance,” he said.

“We self-reported most of the breaches to the regulator, cooperated fully with their investigations and take full responsibility for all of the breaches before the court.”

The breaches affected electricity and gas customers. (Supplied: Facebook/ Power and Water)normal

Mr Briskin said many of the breaches were caused by errors in the company’s legacy customer service platform or by human error.

“With all of Origin’s retail electricity and gas customers now being serviced through our new customer service platform Kraken, we expect to deliver great service and improved compliance outcomes,” he said.

“Customers suffered no or limited loss or damage, and we remediated affected customers where appropriate.”

In addition to the fine, the court will order Origin to implement additional quality assurance measures, publish public notices in major Melbourne newspapers, run additional training for staff, and pay court costs for the Essential Services Commission.

Origin Energy does not plan to appeal the orders.

It is believed to be the largest financial penalty for breaches of energy rules in Victorian history.

Origin Energy paid a similar fine ordered by the Federal Court in 2022 after breaching its obligations to customers experiencing hardship and payment difficulties.

In December, AGL was also fined $25 million by the Federal Court for a Centrepay scandal that saw it overcharge vulnerable people on welfare without their knowledge.

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