Retailers' obligations

Powerswitch and Utilities Disputes

Retailers are required to provide clear and prominent information about Utilities Disputes:

• on their website
• when responding to queries from consumers
• in outbound communications directed to consumers about electricity services and bills.

Retailers that trade at a residential ICP recorded on the registry are required to provide clear and prominent information about Powerswitch:

• on their website
• in outbound communications to residential consumers about price and service changes
• to residential consumers on an annual basis
• in outbound communications directed to residential consumers about the consumer’s bill.

See clauses 11.30A to 11.30E of the Code and the following guidelines.

Consumer Care Obligations

The Consumer Care Obligations are a set of minimum standards that all retailers must comply with if they sell electricity to residential consumers. These obligations are in Part 11A of the Electricity Industry Participation Code 2010 (Code).

The Consumer Care Obligations require retailers to:

• adopt behaviours and processes that foster positive relationships with residential consumers
• support residential consumers in accessing and maintaining an affordable and constant electricity supply suitable for their needs, and
• help minimise harm to residential consumers caused by insufficient access to electricity or by payment difficulties.

Key dates 

From 1 January 2025

Two key protections come into effect:

• Retailers must not disconnect postpay customers if they know a household member may be medically dependent.
• All fees must be reasonable and cost reflective.

Retailers are expected to have implemented these protections from 1 January 2025.

From 1 April 2025

The remaining obligations will take effect, allowing retailers time to make any necessary operational adjustments to ensure full compliance.

Retailers are expected to have implemented all protections under the Consumer Care Obligations from 1 April 2025.

Resources to support compliance

To assist retailers in preparing for the Consumer Care Obligations, the following resources are available:

• Consumer Care Obligations under Part 11A
• Consumer Care Obligations Retailer Guidance
• Retailer Disconnection Notification on Infoprov
• 12 December 2024 Consumer Care Obligations industry webinar recording and slides.

You can read more about our decisions on the Consumer Care Obligations on our project page.

Preparing for full compliance

Retailers are expected to use the period leading up to 1 April 2025 to ensure their systems, processes, and staff training are aligned with the Consumer Care Obligations.

Ongoing support

Ahead of 1 April 2025 we will:

• update the Retailer Guidance and publish the necessary forms to support compliance with the remaining Consumer Care Obligations, and
• run webinars to support industry participants to implement the remaining obligations.

For further information or assistance, please contact consumercare@ea.govt.nz.

Consumer Care Guidelines 

The voluntary Consumer Care Guidelines will remain available until 1 April 2025, at which point all protections under the Consumer Care Obligations will be effective.

Retailers can continue to use the Consumer Care Guidelines to help provide a supportive standard of service to their customers while they work to implement the Consumer Care Obligations. Retailers are expected to have implemented all protections under the Consumer Care Obligations from 1 April 2025.

• Consumer Care Guidelines - for retailers.pdf

Contracting principles and minimum terms

We expect retailers to use our contracting principles and minimum terms and conditions for domestic consumer contracts. Our guidelines include advice on:

• meaningful choice, such as offering a range of pricing plans, products and services for consumers to consider and make informed decisions
• connections, disconnections and contract termination
• actual supply of electricity and related services, such as metering
• contractual terms and conditions, such as being fair and reasonable
• costs, for instance unexpected and unfair costs, that should not be imposed on consumers
• billing and payments
• access to property
• access to remedies in the case of complaints.

Communicating price changes

We expect retailers to apply our guidelines on how to communicate price changes to consumers and the media to improve transparency around electricity charges. Read the following guidelines.

Customer compensation scheme

Retailers must operate a customer compensation scheme, which requires them to pay qualifying customers when asked to conserve electricity. The minimum weekly amount is $12.00 per week. The Electricity Authority determines the minimum weekly payment and reviews it every three years.

Details about the customer compensation scheme are contained in subpart 4 of Part 9 of the Code.

Retailer information provision

All retailers who have at least 1,000 ICPs recorded on the Electricity registry (on the last calendar day of the reporting month) must comply with the Retailer Financial Stress Notice. Participants are required to provide specific information under this notice to our Information provision platform.

Trader default situation

If a trader continues to fail to pay for electricity or distribution services it can lead to increasing financial losses by generators and distributors. The failure by traders to pay for services is referred to as 'trader default'.

We have processes in place to ensure that a customer will never be without a retailer as a result of a trader default, as per Parts 11 and 14 of the Code.