Australia's competition regulator, the ACCC, is taking EnergyAustralia to the Federal Court, alleging that the energy retailer misled customers on power prices.
EnergyAustralia has approximately one million residential customers and 88,000 small business customers, and is required under the Electricity Retail Code to state the "lowest possible price" when sending price change notices to customers.
But the ACCC argues it failed to do that, alleging that EnergyAustralia made it harder for people to accurately compare their electricity plan with offers from other retailers.
"With electricity prices increasing, and many Australians looking for a better deal, it's crucial that the information people receive from their energy company is correct and can be relied upon," ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said in a statement.
"Correspondence from energy companies often contains complex information that is hard for consumers to decipher, which is precisely the problem that the Electricity Retail Code was introduced to deal with.
"Households cannot do genuine like-for-like comparisons between different electricity plans unless every energy company complies with the Code requirements on price offers.
"Non-compliance, particularly by a large company, can distort the process of shopping around for the best deal."
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EnergyAustralia chief customer officer Mark Brownfield apologised on Friday, saying that the retailer is working to improve its customer communications.
"On behalf of EnergyAustralia, I apologise to our customers," he said.
"We understand the clarity of our customer communication is particularly important at a time when cost of living pressures are a key concern for Australian households."
