MSE News: British Gas fined £2.5m over complaints

eurmalian

Actaully, correcting what I said earlier, it's mainly BG Business, but a part does also refer to the Residential side.

bengasman

broxis11 wrote: »

The first was for BG Business.. my question is whether this if for Bg Business as well.

Who cares which subsection exactly? It's BG/Centrica again.

Gordon_Hose

torbrex wrote: »

The cynic in me says 'How much are they going to put the prices up to pay for this fine'

That's exactly what I thought when I read it too.

I'm all for holding these huge companies accountable for their actions, but massive fines only hurt the consumer ultimately.

It's like suing your child's school for a playground accident, then moaning because the school can't afford decent books.

SnowMan

joyfull wrote: »

Questions...

I've always wondered, when this happens, who gets the money when these companies are fined?

Also, surely we, the customers, will end up footing the bill for the fine ultimately?

Anyone know?

I think it goes to the Treasury see here which says

Ofgem is funded by a licence fee levied on the energy industry, and not by taxpayers. The £31 million of fines it has imposed on the industry since 2002 is not used to fund Ofgem, but is paid directly to the Treasury.

So arguably it is a form of indirect taxation on us the consumer (especially if as ofgem say they are getting tougher and the fines are getting bigger).

However given the size of the UK population (around 62 million) it doesn't look to be a huge amount per person. I estimate about 50 pence per person over the period 2002 to March 2011, or 6p per person a year for ofgem fines, based on that £31 million figure.

Plushchris

Maybe this is just the first company to be getting fined, would expect the others that are being investigated to get clobbered as well..

joyfull

Thanks for that Snowman. It's as I suspected, but as you say, needs to be looked at in perspective.

Be_Happy

Other companies must be worried about this.

This morning I got 3 e-mail read receipt notices from Scottish Power for query e-mails I sent and had answered TWO YEARS AGO. They must be trawling through old e-mails.

broxis11

Be_Happy wrote: »

Other companies must be worried about this.

This morning I got 3 e-mail read receipt notices from Scottish Power for query e-mails I sent and had answered TWO YEARS AGO. They must be trawling through old e-mails.

That`s interesting! The thing about these fines is not so much about the money, it`s more about the fact that it`s another day/week in the headlines for all of the wrong reasons.

Stephen_Leak

British Gas have described the fine as "disproportionate".

Well, at least they now know how their customers feel, every time they open one of their bills.

cactusdust

Oh.. the fine has gone to the treasury. I suppose it's better than lining the pockets of the Ofgem corporate dinner and annual bonus funds.