The UK government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industry (BEIS) has released its Call for Evidence: Third-party intermediaries (TPIs) in the retail energy market. The BEIS intends to use its findings to inform the next steps on possible regulation of domestic and business TPIs.

“While TPIs offer services that are valuable to customers and the energy system,” opens the BEIS’s Call for Evidence, “there are concerns that the actions of some TPIs could lead to customer harm.”

Unsurprisingly, the document includes negative feedback on TPIs operating in business sectors, all of which is rather damning. Feedback includes a lack of transparency – undisclosed commission, undisclosed supplier relationships/preferences; bad practices – misrepresentation, misselling, inappropriate sales tactics, falsifying of documents; poor customer service; and lack of complaint handling procedures/dispute resolution.

Our view

At last! We’re delighted the UK government’s BEIS is finally taking action and calling for evidence. We believe that commission, in particular, should always be fully declared and included as a line item on customer invoices. For too long, hidden costs have hampered the energy market and caused dismay amongst customers.

The market needs to change.

Next steps

We’re putting together evidence that we plan to submit to the BEIS.

We’re happy to include your feedback as well. What would you like the BEIS to do? Do you have any stories about working with TPIs, or have you had any bad experiences?

Simply let us know via our website contact form or by emailing us at [email protected]

Alternatively, submit your own evidence by emailing [email protected]