UK energy supplier OVO Energy faces a £2.37 million penalty. This follows Ofgem determining that OVO Energy failed to properly deal with customer complaints.
OVO Energy is one of the ‘big six’ energy suppliers in the UK. Data from March of this year shows they supply 13.1% of the nation’s electricity and 11% of the gas.
Recently, government regulator Ofgem announced that OVO Energy will face a £2.37 million penalty. 1,395 customers will receive compensation due to customer complaint handling failures.
OVO Energy is to pay about £378,000 directly to the customers that the company were deemed to have failed. OVO Energy were also told to pay £2 million toward the UK’s Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme.
According to an Ofgem post, the problems faced by almost 1,400 OVO customers included:
- Long delays before customer complaints were dealt with
- Delays in OVO Energy taking action on escalated complaints following Ombudsman’s decision
The Energy Ombudsman is a free and impartial service that was appointed by Ofgem, initially established in 2006. The Ombudsman welcomed Ofgem’s decision to penalise OVO Energy.
According to Ofgem, customers that were impacted by OVO Energy including in the context listed above do not need to reach out to anyone as OVO Energy will contact them directly.