Publication details
Ioannidou, Maria and Mantzari, Despoina (2019) ‘The UK Domestic Gas Electricity (Tariff Cap) Act: Re-regulating the Retail Energy Market’, Modern Law Review, 82(1).
Summary
Dr Despoina (Deni) Mantzari, Lecturer in Competition Law and Policy at UCL Laws and Dr Maria Ioannidou, Senior Lecturer in Competition Law at Queen Mary University London have co-authored a paper entitled: ‘The UK Domestic Gas Electricity (Tariff Cap) Act: Re-regulating the Retail Energy Market’ which has been published in the Modern Law Review.
The article offers a timely contribution to the ongoing political, legal and policy debate on the re-regulation of the UK retail energy market and the recently enacted UK Domestic Gas Electricity (Tariff Cap) Act. The Act puts in place a requirement on the independent regulator, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), to set an absolute price cap on poor value tariffs, which was introduced in January 2019. As such, the Act signals a repudiation of the overarching paradigm of consumer empowerment that has informed regulatory remedies to date. Rather than advocating for a different paradigm, the article highlights the difficulties inherent in reconciling price caps – both practically and conceptually – with the competitive process and consumer empowerment. It also discusses other instruments, not necessarily exhausted in retail price regulation, that can render affordable energy prices, without sacrificing consumer empowerment.
Find out more
- View or download the related material
- Download the paper from the SSRN
- Read Dr Mantzari’s further research on the interplay between competition law and consumer protection in the EU liberalised energy markets
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