Genesis to repay more than $1m to customers after ComCom breach

Genesis will refund more than 1500 business customers after miscalculating electricity line charges. Photo / John Stone

Some Genesis customers are in for an unexpected windfall after the company has committed to refunding more than $1 million to business clients it has overcharged.

The company will refund 1576 customers who overpaid a total of $1,138,943 between 2014 and 2020 after the Commerce Commission found it is likely to have breached the Fair Trading Act.

A further 1356 customers who were undercharged by more than $2.4 million will not be chased.

The Commerce Commission has issued Genesis a formal warning over its actions.

Genesis alerted the Commerce Commission in July last year after it appeared to have issued invoices that displayed inaccurate multipliers that were applied in respect of some electricity line charges and resulted in customers being charged the wrong amount.

Commerce Commission chair Anna Rawlings said in many cases customers would not be in a position to easily identify whether an error had been made when they were invoiced for goods and services and customers should be entitled to assume they were being charged correctly.

"Businesses must make sure that they have systems in place to ensure that customers are charged accurately, and to identify and correct inaccuracies promptly if they arise."

Genesis had reassured the Commerce Commission it now had an audit system in place to minimise the risks of a billing error occurring again.

Last week ASB confirmed it would repay $8.1m to customers after admitting lending failures following an investigation by the Commerce Commission which found it in breach of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCF Act).

The bank could not give assurance that proper disclosure was given to more than 73,000 home and personal loan customers when they made changes to the relevant repayment date, amount and frequency of their existing loan agreements either in a branch or over the phone.

Genesis has been approached for comment.