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To: uSwitch - Ann Robinson: Director of Consumer Policy
uSwindle - stop kickbacks corrupting price comparison
uSwitch make clear to the public how much commission you get from suppliers.
The energy industry needs transparency and competition. Yet taxpayer-backed uSwitch refuses to disclose their commissions and deliberately steer consumers towards deals that earn them a kickback.
Why is this important?
uSwitch is accused of systemically hiding the best deals from consumers. Instead, the price comparison giant steers people towards deals that earn the website a kickback from suppliers.
The cost of these kickbacks, or commissions, are ultimately passed back to all of us. What makes uSwitch’s shady dealings worse is that they are part-owned by the UK government.
We the taxpayers bailed out bankers, bankers backed big business, and now one of these businesses is fleecing the billpayer. That's not right.
So openness around this issue is vital as hard-pressed families look to save money. Yet uSwitch refuse to disclose how much cost they are putting onto our bills.
uSwitch are one of the biggest price comparison sites in the UK. Over the last few years, they have taken a particular hold on the energy switching market — a service used by millions of trusting British families to save money.
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Taxpayers bailed out Lloyds in 2008, and the bankers’ private equity arm, LDC, took a significant shareholding in uSwitch in 2012.
In 2012, Lloyds’ investment helped uSwitch to revenues of £24m. By 2013, those revenues had leapt to £34m.
The first step to making it stop is openness about commission levels in price comparison.
