HARTFORD, Conn. (Legal Newsline) – An energy company is being sued over claims its charging customers an unfair price compared to the market rate.
Shane C. Roberts filed the lawsuit on March 3 against Verde Energy USA claiming the company uses a variable rate electricity plan, but doesn’t lower the rates when the market price goes down.
When customers first sign up for Verde they receive a “teaser rate.” However, when the rate expires customers are subject to a month-to-month variable rate plan that is tied to the market rate of wholesale power, the complaint says.
Abraham A. Ribicoff Federal Building
The lawsuit alleges Verde charges its customers up to nearly four times what the underlying market rate stands at. The lawsuit alleges that Verde charged customers about 20 cents per kilowatt, but the market wholesale price was about 4 cents per kilowatt in December, which is about 375 percent above market value. The price rose from about nine cents per kilowatt in November 2013, according to the lawsuit.
Roberts is seeking class status for the lawsuit as well as more than $5 million in damages plus court costs. He is represented by Robert A. Izard, Seth R. Klein and Nicole A. Veno of Izard Nobel, LLP in West Hartford, Conn.
United States District Court for the District of Connecticut case number 3:15-cv-00312
