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Consumer protection
Open Consultation

Consumer Care Obligations

Mandating consumer care protections to ensure consumers receive a consistent and supportive standard of service.

  • Consumers
  • Retail

    • Open consultation

    EIEP4A Medically dependent consumer information

    Submissions due by 28 January 2025

    View consultation

    Overview

    We have published the Consumer Care Obligations, mandating key protections for electricity consumers in New Zealand.

    Two key protections – prohibiting retailers from disconnecting customers they know to be medically dependent and requiring any fees or charges to be reasonable - will apply from 1 January 2025. The remaining obligations will take effect from 1 April 2025 to ensure retailers have the necessary operational changes in place to implement the new requirements for their customers.

    An industry webinar will be held on Thursday 12 December to support retailers and distributors to understand the key protections that will apply from 1 January 2025. Register for the webinar

    We are seeking feedback by 28 January 2025 on a new Electricity Information Exchange Protocol to support retailers’ upcoming obligations under the Consumer Care Obligations to share information with distributors about medically dependent consumers on their networks. View consultation

    Timeline

    Past activity

    Project background

    In April 2020, following a recommendation from the Electricity Price Review and industry feedback, we reviewed our guidelines for retailers on arrangements to assist medically dependent and vulnerable consumers. There had been significant change in New Zealand’s electricity industry and the existing guidelines were no longer fit for purpose. Our review led to the replacement of the medically dependent consumer and vulnerable consumer guidelines with new Consumer Care Guidelines.

    In 2023 a review of the voluntary Consumer Care Guidelines revealed inconsistent implementation across the market. We worked closely with industry and consumer groups and decided to introduce mandatory Consumer Care Obligations from 2025 to ensure consistent care and protections for all residential consumers.

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