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The Competition and Markets Authority has defended its recommendation that price comparison sites only show commission-paying suppliers.
Chair of the probe Roger Witcomb told Utility Week “it wasn’t a difficult decision”.
The remedy from the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA’s) investigation into the industry removes the requirement on price comparison websites to show the whole of the market but has come under fire from a number of small suppliers.
Independents including GB Energy Supply and Co-operative Energy highlighted their concerns in a letter to former energy secretary Amber Rudd, arguing that the comparison sites will only show deals that big energy companies have paid them to promote.
But Witcomb said the remedy is a “very clear way of making the market work better”.
“It’s entirely understandable that the people who were getting free access to price comparison sites don’t much like that [the remedy].
“A lot of restrictions on the market over the last few years had unintended and unfortunate consequences and to be absolutely honest, I think we thought that was one of them,” he added.
The CMA published its final report in June 2016 and made recommendations to improve customer engagement and competition in the market.
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