\n<\/p>\n
The CMA also praised the daily price checker tool develop by the NI Consumer Council and said the Scottish government should consider a similar service.<\/p>\n
The NI Consumer Council welcomed the CMA’s recommendations describing them as “a positive step forward” in showing the “material differences between Northern Ireland and Great Britain”.<\/p>\n
“This is the second energy price crisis consumers are experiencing in four years,” it added. <\/p>\n
“While heating oil prices have fallen from the highs seen following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, they remain above pre-invasion levels, continuing to disproportionately impact vulnerable consumers and households.”<\/p>\n
The council also said any “new regulatory regime” must “give careful consideration to the composition of heating oil sector here”.<\/p>\n
Alongside its market study, the CMA has been investigating complaints that some suppliers may have breached their contracts when they cancelled customer orders at the start of the conflict as prices were rising steeply.<\/p>\n
When wholesale prices surged, some suppliers chose to cancel lower-priced pending orders and required customers to re-order at the new, higher rates.<\/p>\n
CMA analysis shows that about 1,700 customers across the UK were affected by possible breaches of contract.<\/p>\n
Whilst those people received refunds for their original order, many had to re-order at significantly higher prices or go without fuel.<\/p>\n
As a result, some people may have had to pay between \u00a3150-\u00a3350 more for their heating oil order.<\/p>\n
Following CMA engagement some suppliers have agreed to compensate affected consumers but others have not.<\/p>\n
Sarah Cardell said the CMA was “pressing” the holdout firms to pay compensation and is “preparing to take enforcement action if they don’t”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n