ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) has welcomed a Citizens Advice report and renewed calls for Ofgem to protect microbusinesses.
The report from Citizens Advice found that microbusinesses have few protections when buying energy services and experience issues with debt and contract issues caused by minority of third party intermediaries (TPIs).
The report made five recommendations:
- Industry should improve processes for microbusiness consumers around debt and disconnection
- TPIs should be transparent on commission, market coverage and any fees should appear on bills
- Government should introduce appropriate regulation for brokers and other third party intermediaries
- Ofgem should protect microbusinesses if their suppliers fail
- Ofgem should evaluate the experience of vulnerable microbusiness consumers in the non-domestic sector
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “We welcome the Citizens Advice report which echoes recommendations that we made to Ofgem earlier this year to regulate the third party intermediary market to ensure that microbusinesses are adequately protected from malpractice.
“Microbusinesses should have the same protections and freedoms as domestic consumers with their energy supply and we will continue to engage with Ofgem on the issues that microbusinesses face.”
Earlier this year Ofgem launched a call for evidence seeking to find out the challenges that microbusinesses face in terms of their energy supplier, ACS’ response is available here.
Ofgem is expected to publish their review of microbusinesses shortly.
