December 2025 - Retail Guidelines Review

EWOQ contributed to a joint submission with EWON and EWOSA on the Australian Energy Regulator’s (AER) consultation to simplify and improve the following retail guidelines which shape many customer experiences, including choosing and comparing plans, receiving bills, understanding changes to plan benefits and accessing payment difficulty assistance:

  • Benefit change notice Guidelines
  • Better Bills Guideline
  • Customer Hardship Policy Guideline
  • Retail Pricing Information Guidelines

Our response supported improving retailer communications by using design principles, making communications more accessible and improving benefit change notices, making it easier to access a better offer and improving price transparency by making fees and charges easier to understand. We encouraged keeping the Customer Hardship Policy Guideline separate, using the term affordability over hardship, and improving payment assistance information, making affordability policies more consumer friendly and helping customers access concessions and rebates.