Washington (December 11, 2023) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, today led Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) in calling on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to immediately intervene, investigate, and rigorously enforce consumer protection laws against certain electric supply companies. Competitive choice policies instituted in the residential electric supply market since the 1990s have allowed higher-cost electric suppliers to overcharge and take advantage of vulnerable consumers, especially in low-income communities and communities of color, resulting in grossly higher electricity bills for households. Rather than deliver the promised competition in the market for residential electricity and lower power prices for customers in Massachusetts, these electric supply companies have charged more than regulated incumbents. In Massachusetts, Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office has found that, in the last seven years, individual residential customers who received their electric supply from competitive suppliers paid $607 million more on their electric bills than they would have paid to a default utility.
In their letter to the FTC, the lawmakers wrote, “Too many competitive electric suppliers, such as Liberty Power and Starion Energy, have fleeced Massachusetts consumers... As colder weather approaches and competitive electric suppliers across the nation continue to prey on fears of high electricity bills, the FTC must signal it will not tolerate any inappropriate behavior from competitive electric suppliers. Too many of these suppliers continue to target vulnerable populations, engage in unlawful tactics, and dramatically overcharge consumers — precisely the types of wrongdoing against which the FTC is empowered to act to protect consumers. We urge the FTC to immediately open an investigation into the unfair and deceptive marketing acts and practices of competitive electric suppliers.”
Competitive electric suppliers have worked across state lines to use unfair and deceptive tactics against consumers, which makes penalizing these bad actions difficult for state officials. Tactics include selling unnecessary “price protection” or “rate increase” protection products by convincing customers that electricity prices would otherwise soar without the protections, or misleading customers about the actual difference in price between the competitive plan and basic utility service. Higher electric bills can impede climate action, as consumers become less likely to switch from gas to electric heating systems. As colder weather approaches, the FTC must signal it will not tolerate inappropriate behavior from competitive electric suppliers that prey on consumer fears of high electricity bills.
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