Retail Energy Provider Agrees To Door-to-Door Marketing Stay-Out Under Settlement Approved By PUC

The Maine PUC adopted a settlement between Clearview Electric, Inc. d/b/a Clearview Energy ('Clearview' or the 'Company') and the Office of the Public Advocate ('OPA') which resolves a show cause order issued to the supplier

As previously reported, in the show cause order to Clearview Energy, the PUC had stated, "Beginning in May 2019, CMP and the Commission's Consumer Assistance and Safety Division (CASD) began receiving complaints regarding Clearview's door-to-door marketing activities. The nature of the complaints included: the marketer claims to be an employee or representative of CMP; need to check the meter for accuracy; and marketing to a customer that did not speak English."

See more details on the alleged behavior here

Clearview Energy provided the following statement concerning the matter:

"In late 2019, the Public Utilities Commission raised concerns with certain activities alleged to have occurred between Clearview Energy’s third-party sales representatives and a handful of Maine consumers. Although the company disputed the allegations based on its internal investigations, Clearview Energy is pleased that it was able to resolve the matter informally through a stipulation with the Office of the Public Advocate, with the assistance of Commission Staff. The terms of the stipulation, as approved by the Public Utilities Commission, included no finding of wrong doing on behalf of the company or its vendors, and resolved the limited allegations related to door-to-door sales.

"Clearview Energy takes sales compliance seriously and appreciates the efforts of the Office of the Public Advocate and the Commission Staff to resolve the matter informally."

--- Statement from Clearview Energy

The adopted settlement provides that, "Beginning on the date of the Commission’s order approving this Stipulation, Clearview will forego residential door-to-door solicitation in Maine for a period of two years."

Clearview had voluntarily withdrawn from the residential door-to-door market in Maine on October 23, 2019 and has not re-entered the market since such time

The settlement provides that the residential door-to-door stay-out described above, "applies solely to in-person residential door-to-door sales and does not limit in any way Clearview’s ability to engage in other methods of solicitation that it currently uses or may use in the future, including but not limited to, outgoing and incoming telemarketing, web-based sales, table top solicitations, direct mail and all other methods of advertising and sales that do not involve in-person solicitation of consumers at their residence."

Beginning on the date of the Commission’s order approving this Stipulation, Clearview will continue for a period of one year its practice of recording all telemarketing sales calls (the 'Recording Period'). Clearview agrees to retain recordings made during the Recording Period until the second anniversary of the Commission’s order approving this Stipulation (the 'Retention Period').

Docket No. 2012-00376