The JEC made a submission to the Australian Energy Market Commission’s (AEMC) Enhanced consumer protections directions paper as part of the accelerated smart meter deployment rule change.
We submit that retailers, not consumers, are best placed to manage the risks and/or costs associated with the transition to cost-reflective network tariffs. Retailers have various tools to manage these risks and should not pass them on to consumers.
We also recommend that a more consistent approach to explicit informed consent (EIC) provisions be adopted to strengthen the proposed protections. That is, either EIC should be maintained until explicitly overridden or clear protections implemented for time-limited arrangements, such as defaulting to a regulated offer once consent expires.
