In 2004 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled against Enbridge Gas in a class action suit brought against them over their excessive (and illegal) application of late fees on customers accounts. Enbridge agreed to pay $22million as a settlement after the ruling. Now that seems like the appropriate and responsible move. They likely collected a lot more than that before they were challenged but at least they had to surrender some of that cost.
Now you’d think that would be the end of it, lesson learned, they (and other over charging utilities) would adjust their late fees and get on with life. The shareholders would have to eat some dividends and life would go on. No, that wasn’t the end of the story.
Enbridge had the cheek to apply to the provincial energy board for permission to impose a special charge on to their customers to finance the cost of the settlement. Yes, that is the same customers that had been charged late fees plus all the customers who had never had to pay late fees. Now that is what I call fair play, didn’t get all their customers the first time, so they will get some the second time and all of them at least once.
The energy board approved the application, which leads one to wonder who either was asleep during that application or got paid off. There is a basic lack of logic that they even gave Enbridge air time let alone granting them the request.
Gord Garland, who brought the original class action suit has applied to the Ontario Government to have them review the ruling. Enbridge customers need to be watching this closely before they start paying even more for their energy because of this charge, which if it runs true to form, will net them WAY more than the 22million.
Other utility users need to keep an eye on this story as there are similar class action suits pending over their late fees.
notice: The content of this post contains my opinions and my right to express them. I will respect your right to express your opinion in the comments as long as you’re not abusive and you respect my right to my opinion.
