Australia’s top consumer protection regulator has fined energy retailer Dodo Power & Gas (Dodo) A$82,500 for breaching electricity price caps.

Dodo is a small electricity retailer in the Australian market, with 65,658 residential customers and 879 small business customers as of the second quarter of 2023-24, with a market share of approximately 1 per cent of residential customers and 0.1 per cent of small businesses.

The ACCC has said that Dodo has admitted that between July 1, 2022, and May 21, 2023, the standing offer prices for two of Dodo’s offers exceeded the relevant price cap in force for the 2022 to 2023 financial year, breaching the Electricity Retail Code of Conduct.

That code which went into effect in 2019 sets how prices and discounts must be advertised, published and offered. It requires electricity retailers to present energy price information in a clear and easily understandable manner and also sets a limit on how much standing offer (or default offer)
customers are charged.

Dodo admitted that it sent price change communications to customers on June 6, 2023, and June 20, 2023, which failed to include information required under the code, and that it did not make a record of how it calculated some matters related to the offered prices as required by the code.

As part of its undertaking to the ACCC, Dodo has now said that it would cease that conduct and establish and implement a compliance programme to minimise its risk of future breaches of the code.

“This is the first enforcement action taken by the ACCC in respect of a failure to ensure standing offers comply with the price cap. The price cap is the maximum allowable price for standing offers, and serves an important function to protect standing offer customers. It also acts as a common reference price to compare offers against,” said ACCC Commissioner Liza Carver.

This isn’t the first time that Dodo has come under scrutiny from regulators in Australia.

In 2019, it was made to pay a penalty of A$37,800 after the ACCC issued it with three infringement notices in relation to alleged misleading claims about discounts on energy plans.

In 2020, Dodo paid another fine of A$20,000 to the Australian Energy Regulator for failing to promptly appoint a Metering Coordinator.

The ACCC has cracked down on other energy retailers too. Last year, it charged EnergyAustralia with misleading customers, exposing the country’s third-largest electricity and gas retailer to potential fines worth millions of dollars.