Declarations

In its orders, the court also made declarations that:

• Between 1 January 2019 and 30 November 2021, in respect of customers who were receiving payment assistance under Division 3 Part 3 of the ERC whose repayment of arrears was not on hold and who failed to make a payment by the date on which it was payable, contravened cl 81(6) of the ERC by failing to contact 14,933 customers to discuss their putting forward a revied proposal under cl 81 of the ERC
• Between 1 January 2019 to 30 November 2021, in respect of customers who were receiving payment assistance under Division 3 Part 3 of the ERC whose repayment of arrears were on hold and who failed to make a payment toward the cost of their ongoing energy use by the date on which it was payable, contravened cl 82(2) of the ERC by failing to contact 3,808 customers to discuss varying the amount payable or the frequency of those payments, or both, to give the customers more time to lower their energy costs
• Between 14 February 2019 and 16 March 2020, contravened cl 111A(1)(a)(iv) of the ERC v 12 to v 15 by arranging de-energisation of the premises of 177 residential customers for not paying a bill without, after the issue of a disconnection warning notice, using its best endeavours to contact the customer in relation to the matter, and in doing so, failing to provide clear and unambiguous information about the assistance available under Part 3 of the ERC.
• Between 23 April 2018 and 31 December 2020, in respect of 477 small customers who had been undercharged and from whom it proposed to recover the amount undercharged, contravened cl 30(2)(a) of the ERC v 11a to v 17, by not limiting the amount to be recovered to the amount that had been undercharged by it in the nine months before the date on which the customers were notified of the undercharging, and in circumstances where the amount undercharged was not as a result of the customer’s fault or unlawful act or omission
• Between 1 January 2021 to 30 November 2021, in respect of 958 small customers who had been undercharged and from whom it proposed to recover the amount undercharged, contravened cl 30(2)(a) of the ERC v 18 to v 21, by not limiting the amount to be recovered to the amount that had been undercharged by it in the four months before the date on which the customers were notified of the undercharging, and in circumstances where the amount undercharged was not as a result of the customer’s fault or unlawful act or omission
• Between 1 July 2019 and 28 February 2022, in respect of 2,212 small customers who were entitled to receive a “deemed best offer”, contravened cl 70R (1) of the ERC v 13 to v 21, by failing to provide a “deemed best offer” at least once every three months, or, if the customer had agreed to a billing cycle with a regular recurrent period that differed from the usual recurrent period and that period was three months or longer, once in each billing cycle
• Between 22 August 2018 and 28 February 2022, in respect of 40 customers, contravened cl 26 (1) of the ERC v 11b to v 21 by providing a “pay-by date” for a bill that was earlier than 13 business days from the bill issue date

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