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Investigation into the Big 5 Price Comparison Sites Announced

energy-newsA commons select committee investigation into the behaviour and transparency of price comparison websites has been announced.

Following the controversy of ‘hiding deals’ that hit the headlines in October and the weak response from the price comparison websites for what many saw as opaque business models, the Energy and Climate Change Committee will be holding a one-off evidence session in early 2015 ahead of its select committee investigation.

The Committee will be looking at:

  • The role of energy price comparison websites and how they operate
  • Transparency of the commission received by the energy price comparison websites
  • The remaining consumer trust in energy price comparison websites and whether this is at appropriate levels
  • Arrangements for the future oversight of these websites, for example through the ‘Confidence Code’, a Code of Practice that governs independent energy price comparison sites

The call for evidence is to be completed by 14th January promising a nervous festive period for the Big 5 price comparison sites Moneysupermarket, Go Compare, Confused.com, Comparethemarket and uSwitch.

The market will be watching with interest, not least given the clean bill of health Ofgem quickly gave the energy price comparison websites following October’s revelations.