Pennsylvania Regulators Remind Retail Suppliers to Follow the Rules After Dubious Sales Practices

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission issued a secretarial letter on April 3 to all electric and natural gas suppliers in the state reminding them of sales and marketing guidelines for the state’s residential energy market. The letter follows the imposition of civil penalties and remedial action against multiple electric generation suppliers for violating rules that govern door-to-door sales.

On March 14, the regulator doubled down on the civil penalties imposed as part of a settlement agreement with Vista Energy Marketing LP, following an investigation into the company’s marketing and sales practices. The Commission voted 5-0 to approve a motion by commission Chair Gladys Brown, which modifies a settlement between Vista and the commission’s independent Bureau of Investigation & Enforcement bumping civil penalties to more than $50,000. According to the regulator, an informal investigation was undertaken based on a referral by the commission’s Office of Competitive Market Oversight, which became aware of Vista engaging a third-party vendor for door-to-door sales and marketing without a proper criminal background investigation.

Two weeks later, on March 28, the regulator reached another settlement agreement, this time with Great American Power LLC following an investigation into the company’s marketing and sales practices. The supplier failed to obtain local solicitation permits prior to conducting door-to-door marketing and sales activities, and also failed to properly notify the regulator’s Bureau of Consumer Services as well as electric distribution companies about such activities, as required by state law. Under the agreement, the company paid a civil penalty of $13,500.