Retailers are staring down the barrel of more regulation, but a bit of proactivity could reduce the threat of even more, the market rule maker says.
The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) is about to put the onus of making sure customers are on the best plan onto retailers, and make sure all market signals are simple and easy to follow, following months of consultation on six draft recommendations published in December last year.
And while economist and AEMC commissioner Sally McMahon says retailers often call them out for over-regulating the sector and adding costs that consumers ultimately pay, she’s also found they tend to wait for an intervention before acting.
“We don’t want to regulate retailers if we don’t have to, but we’d really like to see some behaviors that suggest that we don’t have to,” she said at the Australian Energy Week conference.
“I would like to see a change in retailer behavior… where the retailers take on the role of risk and managing the complexity, they’re really proactive in providing better offers to consumers, so we can really avoid the loyalty tax, but they’re also proactive in providing the appropriate safeguards.”
