Ontario Intends to Suspend/Revoke Licence of Retail Suppliers

The Ontario Energy Board has issued a notice stating it intends to make an order or orders against morEnergy Savings Corp. and Blue Power Distributed Energy Corp. with such orders, among other things, revoking or suspending the companies' electricity retailer and gas marketer licences and assessing an administrative penalty in the amount of $360,000 (Canadian).

The Board noted that morEnergy Savings Corp. and Blue Power Distributed Energy Corp. are owned by the same parent company, and referred to the companies collectively as "morEnergy" in its notice.

In addition to its notice of intent, the Board issued an interim order requiring morEnergy to cease all door-to-door sales activities until the Board issues a subsequent order.

The Board specifically alleged that morEnergy has contravened sections of the Energy Consumer Protection Act, 2010, sections of Ontario Regulation 389/10, and sections of the Electricity Retailer Code of Conduct and the Code of Conduct for Gas Marketers, with such alleged contraventions falling into two broad categories: 1) misrepresentation and the unauthorized enrollment of consumers into morEnergy contracts, and 2) failure to verify contracts.

The Board alleged that morEnergy sales agents used a portable electronic device to enroll consumers in contracts with morEnergy over the internet, either in the presence of the consumers or after they had left the presence of the consumers. "morEnergy then failed to verify many of these Contracts with consumers as is required by section 15 of the ECPA," the Board alleged.

The Board alleged that morEnergy improperly treated the contracts that were entered into in the presence of morEnergy sales agents to be "internet agreements," and therefore treated them as exempt from verification requirements pursuant to section 17 of the ECPA.

The Board said that this "contravention" relates to several hundred contracts.

The Board also alleged that morEnergy has enrolled at least thirteen consumers in natural gas or electricity contracts without the knowledge or consent of those consumers. The board said that such allegations resulted from customer complaints alleging, among other things, that:

• "morEnergy sales agents misrepresented who they were and the purpose of their visit in the course of their door-to-door sales activities"

• "morEnergy sales agents falsely represented that they were not enrolling the consumer into a Contract, whereas in fact these consumers were enrolled – without their knowledge or consent – in Contracts with morEnergy"

morEnergy is entitled to request a hearing the Board's allegations.

Aside from the administrative penalty, the Board also intends to require morEnergy to pay restitution to any consumers who were improperly enrolled in morEnergy contracts, whether it be by: 1) misrepresentation, or 2) by failure to verify the contract