Big Six price cap legal challenge a possibility

The Big Six suppliers could mount a legal challenge to the government’s planned market-wide energy price cap, according to one of the companies’ chief executives.

Eon CEO Michael Lewis refused to rule out a challenge when confronted on the issue by former shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint during a panel debate at the Energy UK annual conference this morning.

Flint said it was “a considerable worry” that suppliers would take the fight to court in a move which she said “would be hugely detrimental to the industry”.

Lewis said he was not prepared to respond to a hypothetical question, adding: “I have no idea of what the price cap looks like: we will see what Ofgem proposes.”

The Eon boss also warned that the cap on household energy bills could turn out to be permanent despite the government’s claims that it will be a temporary measure.

“There is a real possibility that the price cap could become permanent,” he said.

The government’s draft energy price cap bill, tabled in Parliament last week, states that the cap will be in place until 2020 with the option for Ofgem to extend it on an annual basis until 2023.

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