Copower

Pty Ltd
PO Box 53
Clifton Hill, 3068
26 October 2015

The Minister for Industry,

The Hon. Lily D'Ambrosio MP,
Level 36, 121 Exhibition Street,
Melbourne, 3000
By email
Dear Minister,
Uncompetitive Energy Comparator Code
On October 7, the Consumer Utilities Advocacy Centre (CUAC) released its Energy Comparator
Code of Conduct, a voluntary code designed to guide the behaviour of energy comparison sites.
CUAC is largely funded by the Victorian Government.
The mission of CUAC is:
To ensure the interests of Victorian consumers, especially low-income, disadvantaged,
rural and regional and indigenous consumers, are effectively represented in the policy and
regulatory debate on electricity, gas and water.
The development of a code is indeed welcome, as the industry has seen some poor behaviour and
standards being applied in the past.
Unfortunately the Code has a fatal flaw. It states:
We will display only products provided to us by a retailer with whom we have a
commercial relationship.
How could this provision possibly be in the interests of consumers? In consulting regarding the
draft code, CUAC received responses from 6 organisations. Two of those specifically rejected this
proposal on the grounds that it was not in the interests of customers (see attached). CUAC gave no
reasons for rejecting these submissions.
We believe that it is not appropriate for CUAC to base its code entirely on how the industry has
operated in the past. The current structure has resulted in retailer margins in Victoria being twice
those that apply in other States. The new Code does little, if anything beyond what ACCC guidelines
already do, except offer marketing kudos to the current players and restrict new models.
It should also be noted that in the UK, the regulator requires all comparison services to compare all
retailer offers and the margins there are 9% compared with 22% in Victoria.
Energy Umpire compares all retailer offers and is advocating for all comparison sites to be required
to compare all offers and certainly not be precluded from doing so. Energy Umpire acquires its
information about all retailer offers from its affiliated retailers and the impeccable source of the
Victorian Government website. It updates this information regularly. It is also worth noting that the
Victorian Government comparison service is not in compliance with the CUAC code.
There must be questions about the propriety of an industry committee developing a code that so
blatantly supports their existing way of doing business.
I respectfully request that you ask the CUAC Board why the Code should not be withdrawn
pending a review of this clause and the propriety of the development of the code.
Yours sincerely,
(signed)
Alan Rattray, Founder Energy Umpire
alan@energyumpire.com.au Phone: 0418 190 783


Attachment Comments by Powershop and Energy Umpire on CUAC code
The CUAC Energy Comparator Code of Conduct states:
We will display only products provided to us by a retailer with whom we have a
commercial relationship.
Powershop commented:

That seems counter to consumers best interests. Provided that the comparator:
is indicating when they collected data (and from what source unless its from a Government
comparison site or the retailers own website);
agrees in the Code to promptly update offers that are identified by a retailer as being
inaccurate; and
agrees in the Code to notify any retailer whose offers are being shown, in advance of
showing or updating that retailers offer,
consumers would be better served by a list of results that is as complete as possible.
It will then be commercial sensible for retailers to provide accurate information to the
comparators. Ultimately it should be up to the comparator to either: only show results from
partner retailers; or to show results for all retailers of whom the comparator is aware and
for whom pricing data can be obtained.

Energy Umpire commented:

This point, if left unchanged would unreasonably discriminate against our service which
relies on comparing offers from all retailers. We update our offers regularly and also when
we become aware of new plans. We consider that our service offers major benefits to
customers when compared with a selective comparison of a subset of retailers.
A code of conduct that requires selective comparison of retailer offers would be
unacceptable to us. It would unfairly favour existing selective comparison models while
discouraging exhaustive comparisons for customers.
Rewording proposal: When showing plans of retailers online with whom we do not have a
commercial relationship we will display the date that the plan has been updated