The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) and Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) have joined forces to commission research from the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) which provides insight about the ways consumers understand electricity offers.
In a joint statement, the Regulator and Commission said they would use the report, Testing Comprehension of the Reference Price: Research by AER and ACCC, to consider how the presentation of electricity offers could be improved.
“We commissioned the research to understand if different explanations and presentations of energy price comparison information would improve consumer comprehension of retail offers,” the Regulator and Commission said.
“The research will inform the AER’s revision of its Retail Pricing Information Guidelines (RPIG) and the ACCC’s work enforcing the Electricity Retail Code (the Code),” they said.
“The RPIG and the Code each require retailers to present energy price information to customers in a clear and easily understood way, helping them to make better choices about energy offers.”
The two Agencies said key findings of the research were that improvements in comprehension could be made by focusing on clear, simple language; using full sentences rather than compact technical sounding formulations; and using descriptive language such as referring to the reference price as the ‘benchmark price set by the Government’.
BIT’s 53-page report can be accessed at this PS News link.
