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Small energy retailer Outfox the Market will pay out £1.8 million after repeatedly failing to provide Ofgem with appropriate information when required.
The payout, which will be made to Ofgem’s voluntary redress fund, is bigger than the £1.5 million operating profit it posted in its most recent financial results for year ended 29 June 2022.
As part of its monitoring of the energy supply market Ofgem requested financial details for a stress test, where a supplier must provide forecasts in three different price scenarios (when wholesale prices are lower, central or high). This helps the regulator to assess supplier resilience to sudden changes in market conditions.
The company, which supplies c.100,000 customers, was also asked to provide information essential to Ofgem’s recent series of Market Compliance Reviews.
“Outfox The Market…repeatedly failed to report an appropriate level of detail within the timescale required,” Ofgem said.
Cathryn Scott, director of enforcement and emerging issues for Ofgem, said: “Lessons from the past make it clear that the financial resilience of suppliers is key to a sustainable and competitive market for consumers.
“To ensure this, Ofgem regularly takes the pulse of every supplier’s financial health and it is vital that we are provided with accurate information on time.
“Outfox The Market repeatedly failed to do this and today we are making it clear to them and all suppliers that this vital process cannot be taken lightly.”
It comes as Ofgem recently lifted the provisional order banning the supplier from taking on new customers.
Outfox had been prohibited from acquiring new customers since July 2022 when Ofgem ruled that the company lacked sufficient cash to cover its Renewables Obligation and sufficient hedging to limit its exposure to volatile wholesale energy prices.
The order, which was confirmed in October, also barred the company from making any payments, providing any loans or conducting any asset transfers unless they were essential to its operation as an energy retailer.
The company’s latest results show that Outfox posted a turnover of more than £166 million in 2022, with an overall loss of over £930,000.
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