Retail Supplier Agrees To $1.5 Million Settlement With Regulator's Staff

June 23, 2023

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Copyright 2010-23 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

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Xoom Energy Connecticut, LLC would pay $1.5 million and also provide certain customer bill credits under a settlement with the Office of Education, Outreach, & Enforcement (EOE) of the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to resolve alleged violations arising from Xoom's alleged inclusion of a statement on certain bills and other customer-facing materials that customers would be subject to an early termination fee or cost recovery fee, when no such fee existed and/or would not be applied.

Xoom provided the following statement concerning the matter:

"We appreciate the support of the Office of Education, Outreach, and Enforcement, Office of Consumer Counsel, and Department of Energy and Environmental Protection toward bringing this matter to a resolution that benefits Connecticut energy customers. We await the Authority’s final decision."

--- Statement from Xoom

See background on the alleged violations here

The $1.5 million payment is to be directed as a donation to the EDCs to reduce hardship customer arrearages.

Xoom also agrees to provide a $75 bill credit to each affected account identified during the proceeding.

The settlement does not specifically identify the number of impacted customers

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 16-245o(h)(7)(A) became effective on July 1, 2021 and states the following: "No contract for electric generation services by an electric supplier shall require a residential customer to pay any fee for termination or early cancellation of a contract."

EOE had previously alleged that, "in response to an interrogatory, 'Xoom confirmed that as of March 22, 2022, it still had not corrected 1,488 residential customer bills to eliminate the [statement concerning the] early termination fee (ETF).'"

EOE had further alleged that 1,748 accounts had welcome materials indicating the presence cost recovery fees.

Xoom has stated that it did not charge any customer an ETF after July 1, 2021, and the focus of the proceeding has been on the alleged indication to customers that an ETF or cost recovery fee still existed when none did.

The settlement states, "This Settlement Agreement does not represent an admission or concession by XOOM Energy as to the claims, or facts or circumstances surrounding the claims, or proper disposition of any issue related to the NOV [Notice of Violation] or this Settlement Agreement."

Docket 11-06-05

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