Commerce Commission says Contact's promotion less generous than it appeared
Tuesday, 2 April 2019
Contact Energy has been accused of misleading customers in an advertising promotion which offered fuel discounts alongside electricity plans, following a Commerce Commission investigation.
The electricity provider faced seven charges under the Fair Trading Act related to an advertising campaign that ran between April 4, 2017 and July 1, 2017 when Contact joined the AA Smartfuel rewards scheme as a participating retailer.
The campaign ran across emails, TV, radio, newspaper, bus, digital billboard and online advertisements and offered fuel discounts 'every month' to new and existing customers who signed up or stayed on certain Contact electricity plans.
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The commission alleged Contact Energy made false or misleading representations about the offers, by failing to adequately disclose key information in the advertising, including that the discount was only accessible once per month, and rewards could only be redeemed on one fill, and up to a maximum of 50 litres of fuel.
The case will be called in the Wellington District Court on April 29.
In a statement Contact Energy said it would work with the Commerce Commission and hoped the matter would be resolved as soon as possible.
Last month power company Vector was handed a penalty $3.575 million for breaching its network quality standard through an excessive level of power outages in recent years.