Second consultation on the Marketing Code of Practice

The Utility Regulator today publishes a second round of consultation on the Marketing Code of Practice (code) for regulated energy suppliers in Northern Ireland. When finalised, compliance with the new code will be a licence requirement for all regulated electricity and gas suppliers in Northern Ireland.

We are consulting on the changes to the draft mandatory Marketing Code of Practice, which were published in February 2013. We received 11 responses to the original February consultation, one of which was marked as confidential.  The responses are available within the second consultation document.  We also held a stakeholder workshop at our offices as well as bilateral meetings with a number of stakeholders.  The feedback received from our stakeholders has been taken into account in the amended version of the code, on which we are now consulting.

The most fundamental change to the draft code is that it has now been split into two codes, one each for domestic and business users.

We are keen to receive feedback from stakeholders on the updated code, which will influence our final decision paper and the actual Marketing Code, that we plan to publish in early 2014.  However, given the full consultation and engagement process undertaken to date and the subsequent analysis of all stakeholder contributions, this consultation seeks comments only on the changes and updates that have been applied to the draft code