E.ON Next, Octopus and Good Energy should have provided final bills to many switching customers on time.

Three energy suppliers were ordered to pay a total of £8 million in compensation for failing to provide final bills on time to over 100,000 households that had switched providers.

Ofgem, the British energy regulator, stated that E.ON Next was ordered to pay £5.5 million to nearly 95,000 customers because it failed to provide them with a final account within six weeks of switching to another supplier and failed to pay compensation for the delay within ten days of the missed deadline.

Octopus Energy was ordered to pay £750,000 to 19,000 clients

Approximately 350 customers of Good Energy received a total of £18,000. The three suppliers also contributed an additional £1.7 million to a redress programme for vulnerable consumers, of which E.ON Next contributed £1.3 million.

Since the requirement was instituted in 2020, this is the first time the regulator has used its authority to penalise businesses that fail to submit their final bill on time. A delayed final bill may indicate that a consumer needs to be properly set up with their new provider or receive an unexpectedly large bill from their previous provider.

Per Ofgem regulations, customers are entitled to £30 in compensation if they do not receive a final bill within six weeks of leaving a supplier. 

If this is not provided within ten business days, the consumer must pay an additional £30.

Ofgem anticipates that more customers will transfer energy suppliers in the coming months as falling energy market prices enable energy companies to reduce their tariff rates to compete with customers. Neil Kenward, the director of the strategy for the regulatory agency, stated, “Under our rules, customers are automatically compensated when energy companies delay their feet. As we did today, we will not hesitate to hold energy companies accountable.”

A spokesperson for E.ON stated that the company informed Ofgem last year that the supplier’s internal checks revealed that its system needed to be aligned with the regulator’s rules, resulting in compensation payments for final invoices being sent out beyond the six-week deadline.

“At the time, we apologised to affected customers and sent them their missing payments,” the spokesperson explained. Since then, we have taken measures to prevent this error from occurring again.

Both Octopus and Good Energy denied comment.