The Essential Services Commission (ESC) has fined energy retailers operating in Victoria a record $24,467,958 (USD 16.2 million) for breaching consumer protections, including overcharging.
In its crackdown on practices that exacerbate cost of living pressures or negatively affect vulnerable customers, the ESC acted in 2025 on a wide range of breaches, from failures to protect vulnerable customers, to illegal telemarketing and billing issues.
ESC Chairperson and Commissioner Gerard Brody said 2025 has been a record-breaking year, sending the message to retailers that cutting corners on consumer protections is unacceptable, and costly.
“Victoria has some of the strongest protections for energy consumers in the nation and we will continue to enforce them to ensure customers get fair, accurate and transparent services from their energy retailers,” Brody said.
Sin Bin
Origin Energy received the largest financial penalty for breaches of Victoria’s energy rules in the state’s history in March 2025, when the Supreme Court of Victoria ordered it to pay $17.6 million.
Origin had been overcharging customers, had not provided adequate support to customers experiencing payment difficulty, or adequately recorded information of customers on the Life Support Register.
Prior to March, Origin also paid a $1.6 million fine for family violence failures, including allegedly disclosing sensitive information of family violence affected customers without their consent.
AGL Energy received a $924,600 red card for allegedly raising prices for 15,845 residential and small business customers, while Pacific Blue failed to credit the account of over 6,000 customers, earning it a $961,550 penalty.
EnergyAustralia copped a $1,066,986 fine for allegedly giving customers incorrect information about its best energy deals, topped by Engie, fined $1,206,050 for allegedly failing to respond to customer complaints about billing issues in a timely manner.
Momentum Energy allegedly failed to uphold critical protections for customers affected by family violence, including disclosing personal information to perpetrators, paying out $764,380 in fines, and CovaU, fined $341,724 for illegal telemarketing.
The commission also accepted a court enforceable undertaking from EnergyAustralia worth around $1.2 million in customer redress, after it failed to meet its obligations under the payment difficulty framework.
Upcoming changes to energy rules
The ESC introduced significant changes to energy rules that will kick in from October 2026, when the minimum debt a consumer can be disconnected for increases from $300 to $1,000.
Retailers will also be obliged to move customers onto their cheapest plan if they are on payment difficulty support or have been in debt for more than three months and owe more than $1,000, offer payment methods other than direct debit for each plan and have effective processes available for customers to switch to their best offer.
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