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Bay of Plenty electricity generator and retailer TrustPower has been fined $17,000 for breaching the Fair Trading Act.
The Commerce Commission on Friday said that the Tauranga District Court found that TrustPower misled its customers during a power bill review.
In May 2005 the company said it would review its customers' power bills and recommend the cheapest price option for each customer.
The company sent out tailored recommendations to its customers but excluded consumption bases options. The commission says letters to customers were not sufficiently clear that some customers may have been eligible for TrustPower's low fixed charge tariff which could have provided more savings than those recommended.
"Without clear information about the scope of the review, the ability of TrustPower's customers to make an informed decision about their electricity plans was affected. This may have meant some customers missed out on the potential benefits associated with subscription to a low use option," says the commission's director of fair trading Adrian Sparrow.
The court categorised the offending as careless commercial
conduct rather than conduct designed to obtain commercial advantage
or to misinform.
