Farms are among millions of businesses that lawyers say have, on average, had their gas and electricity bills falsely inflated by approximately 10%, after energy firms secretly added third party broker commissions to customers’ bills.
The findings were uncovered by law firm Harcus Parker, which has been reviewing thousands of energy bills as it progresses it’s group legal action to regain up to £2 billion of undisclosed broker fees for businesses across the UK.
Millions of non-domestic energy customers had their bills inflated for more than a decade when the unit cost of their gas and electricity supply was increased to pay secret third-party broker commissions.
Harcus Parker findings
The law firm said that it’s research has revealed that energy companies, on average, added a cost of 1.7p to each unit of gas and electricity to pay brokers’ commissions.
Harcus Parker says this additional amount was frequently paid during a time when the cost of energy was only 10p/kWh, or even less. It has found some brokers were allowed by suppliers to add as much as 6p/kWh.
The firm is currently representing 10 farms, but believes there are thousands more who would be eligible to join.
Harcus Parker has signed up more than 6,500 businesses and organisations to the claim with numbers growing every day.
Founder of Harcus Parker, Damon Parker said: “When you hear the energy companies have added 1.7p/unit in third party broker costs, it doesn’t sound much, but if you’re only paying 10p/unit in total for your energy, that’s a hefty percentage.
“On average, it works out at about 10/c. I would urge all farmers to join the action.
“We’re convinced thousands more must be eligible. We’re well aware of the increasing costs that have been faced by farmers, and in a time of uncertainty we hope to be able to help them recoup significant sums.
“Some claims for farms will go back ten years in total. The claims are fully-funded and insured and, as a result, we are able to act for clients who ordinarily would not have the resources to access justice in a claim of this kind, on a ‘no-win, no-fee’ basis.”
