Origin Energy penalty notices 2021 (exit fees)

Origin Energy have paid penalties totalling $5 million after we issued 250 penalty notices on 16 September 2021. The amount payable for each penalty notice was $20,000.

We issued the penalty notices to Origin Energy after evidence showed between June 2016 and September 2020, more than 77,000 gas and electricity small business contracts wrongly included exit fees . As a result, exit fees adding up to $489,774 were charged to 22,371 customers.

It is a licence condition under the Electricity Industry Act 2000 and the Gas Industry Act 2001 that a retailer must not enter a contract for the supply or sale of electricity or gas with a small retail customer that imposes an exit fee on the termination of the contract, unless the contract is a fixed-term retail contract and has fixed tariffs, charges and fees for electricity or gas supplied under that contract.