Class Action Announced
Slater and Gordon have filed a class action in the Federal Court against AGL Energy Ltd (AGL) in relation to its marketing and sale of "Carbon Neutral" add-on products to electricity and gas customers.
Background
Since July 2020, AGL has offered “Carbon Neutral” add‑on options to household and small business customers. These options:
Were available to residential customers for an additional fixed weekly fee of $1 per week for electricity and $0.50 per week for gas
Were available to small business customers for an additional fixed weekly fee of $7 per week for gas and $4 per week for electricity
Were marketed to customers as carbon neutral, such that AGL would offset the greenhouse gas emissions from their fossil fuelled energy use with credits that prevented, reduced or removed/stored greenhouse gas emissions in equal amount.
AGL promoted these products to customers who wanted to ‘make a difference’ regarding their climate impact and positioned them as an add-on feature to its energy services.
Allegations
This class action alleges that AGL breached the Australian Consumer Law by:
Misleading or deceiving customers by promoting its fossil fuel electricity and gas products as “Carbon Neutral” when customers opted in and paid extra for the add‑on; and
Contravening consumer guarantee requirements,
because the overwhelming majority of carbon offsets used by AGL for the Carbon Neutral product did not prevent, reduce or remove/store an equivalent amount of emissions to those from customers’ energy use.
Group Members
You may be a group member in this class action if:
You were an AGL residential or small business customer; and
You purchased a “Carbon Neutral” add‑on option for your electricity and/or gas account at any time between 1 July 2020 to 17 August 2026.
To find out if you are likely to be a group member and to receive further information as the case progresses, you can sign up for updates using the form here.
Frequently Asked Questions
A class action is a type of legal proceeding in which one person, the Applicant, brings a claim on behalf of a wider group of people who have been affected by the same conduct. By grouping claims together and pursuing them collectively, the overall value of the claim makes it economically worthwhile to do so, even if the value of each of the individual claims is modest.
If you wish to register your interest in the class action, you may do so via the registration form . If you have registered your interest in the class action, you will receive group member updates from Slater and Gordon when there are developments in the class action.
You are not ‘locked-in’ to participating in the class action by registering your interest.
By registering your interest, Slater and Gordon can:
provide you with updated information in relation to the class action; and
assist you with any future Court-ordered registration process required to formally secure your claim for any compensation obtained in the class action.
If you would like to sign up to receive further information as the case progresses, you can register here.
No. You will not be exposed to any out-of-pocket costs as a result of your participation in the class action.
Generally, most class actions tend to take multiple years to resolve, although each class action is different and the time required for each class action will vary.
Yes. You are not required to be a current AGL Carbon Neutral customer to be eligible to participate.
Yes, you can still register to be a part of the class action even if you still have the Carbon Neutral add-on to your gas or electricity accounts.
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