Dancer/Handlin bill protecting electric customers

from unscrupulous providers clears committee

TRENTON, N.J. – Deceitful suppliers that change a consumer’s power company without approval would face severe consequences under legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Ron Dancer and Assemblywoman Amy Handlin. The bill (A1683) passed the Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee today by a 7-0 vote.

“Slamming – signing up a customer for service without authorization – became common practice after de-regulation of long distance telephone service in the 1980s and ‘90s,” said Dancer (R-Ocean). “Today, it is again pervasive due to the dramatic escalation of competition within the third-party energy industry. Customers can be surprised to learn that for many months they have been paying significantly higher electric rates to a new company.”

Dancer and Handlin’s bill doubles the penalties for slamming an energy customer’s account to $20,000 for the first offense, and $50,000 for each subsequent violation.

“The race for profit in the electric market has created problems for rate-payers,” said Handlin (R-Monmouth). “Competition came with the promise of lower rates for consumers, but for some the result has been higher bills and contracts with companies they had never heard of and would never do business with. This bill increases penalties to a level that will make electric marketers think twice about ripping off the public.”

Last session, the bill passed the Assembly by a 69-0 vote.

In 2016, the state settled cases against third party energy suppliers for energy slamming for almost $7 million. Two years earlier, the state attorney general and the Board of Public Utilities filed complaints against three power suppliers for deceptive business practices including slamming. Those companies settled for almost $8 million in restitution.