Energy giant AGL has been ordered to pay the Commonwealth $25 million for overcharging hundreds of customers who received welfare payments over five years.
The fine imposed by Federal Court Judge Kylie Downes on Thursday is the largest in any case brought by the Australian Energy Regulator, since Origin was fined $17 million in 2022.
In August AGL and three of its subsidiaries, including AGL Retail, Sales, South Australia and Power Direct, were found to have breached national energy retail rules more than 16,000 times.
The court found that AGL overcharged 483 Centrepay customers, a bill payment service where people can choose to make regular deductions from their Centrelink payment, between December 2016 and November 2021.
It also found that AGL failed to notify and refund these customers within the required timeframes.
The amount overcharged amounted to $468,310.
“As the clients were wrongfully deprived of their welfare payments for months or years as a result of the AGL breaches, this caused them loss and damage, which is a factor that weighs in favor of a substantial fine,” the judge said. Downes in his decision. .
He said the high fine would be enough to deter AGL and others from violating the rules.
A major energy retailer has received the highest penalty ever imposed by a court in a case brought by the regulator for overcharging Centrelink customers.
“It goes beyond being a mere ‘cost of doing business’ and reflects the nature and extent of AGL’s contraventions,” he said.
Judge Downes also ordered AGL to put processes in place to prevent the problem of overcharging from occurring again.