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British Gas in £5.6 million contracts fine

British Gas has been ordered to pay £5.6m in compensation after being found to have wrongly blocked businesses from switching to new suppliers, Ofgem said.

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British Gas 'sorry' for blocking business switching

British Gas have responded to an Ofgem investigation where they were found to have wrongly blocked businesses from switching to new suppliers.

British Gas Business say they have "agreed to a penalty of £800,000 and will invest at least £3.45 million in an energy efficiency".

We have compensated all our current customers affected by this issue and we are in the process on contacting and compensating affected customers who have since moved to other suppliers.

– British Gas Business

More: British Gas fined £5.6m over blocks on switching

Stephen Beynon, Managing Director of British Gas Business also said:

We’re sorry these errors occurred and have worked swiftly to change our computer systems and processes, putting controls in place to stop this happening again.

We take any failure to meet our obligations very seriously and will ensure that the new energy efficiency fund we have set up will be a real help to hundreds of small businesses.

– Stephen Beynon, Managing Director of British Gas Business
  1. Chris Choi

British Gas fined £5.6m over blocks on switching

British Gas 'failed' business customers, regulator Ofgem found. Credit: Rui Vieira/PA Wire

British Gas will pay £5.6m after being found to have wrongly blocked businesses from switching to new suppliers.

The energy giant's computers and practices "failed customers", regulator Ofgem said. Some small businesses were the worst hit by the practices.

There will be anger that once again an energy company's actions have fallen so far short of it's promises to do it's best for hard pressed customers.

British Gas is Britain's biggest energy firm with thousands of staff - yet says it has "nobody available" to appear on ITV News to explain its latest failings to customers.

As I said to their press office, "shame on British Gas".

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