One of Australia’s biggest energy retailers has been hit with a $14 million fine for misleading more than half a million consumers about power prices just as bills were spiking due to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

EnergyAustralia, the country’s third-biggest electricity and natural gas supplier, on Thursday admitted that messages it had sent between June and September in 2022 to about 566,000 people about power prices had violated consumer law by failing to state the lowest possible prices and misrepresenting the annual price for an “average” customer.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said the breaches occurred at a time when many Australians were searching for better energy deals, as the fallout from the war in Ukraine was deepening a global energy crisis, driving up the price of fossil fuels and flowing through to double-digit increases in household energy bills.

ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said EnergyAustralia had breached laws designed to help consumers compare electricity offers and find the best deal.

“EnergyAustralia’s failure to fully inform consumers meant they could not accurately compare offers from competing retailers and may have been denied the opportunity to choose the best deal for them,” she said.

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“Some consumers may also have been misled by EnergyAustralia’s statements into thinking that a price change was less than it actually was, causing them to stay with their existing plan when in fact a different plan may have represented a better deal.”

Mark Collette, the chief executive of EnergyAustralia, on Thursday said the company was “sincerely sorry” for failing to convey correct electricity pricing information to consumers, including residential and small business customers.

“Once we became aware of the issue, we took immediate action,” he said. “We recognise that with the rising cost of living impacting everyone, we must get the right information to our customers.”

He said the company had made “significant improvements” to its governance.

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