PUCO approves agreement resolving complaint against Dominion East Ohio Energy

COLUMBUS, OHIO (Oct. 14, 2009) – The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) today adopted an agreement resolving a complaint by the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) against Dominion East Ohio Energy (DEOE) regarding unfair, misleading and deceptive marketing, solicitation and sales practices.

Under the terms of the agreement, signed by the company, PUCO staff and the OCC, DEOE will pay a civil forfeiture of $50,000 to the Ohio General Revenue Fund. DEOE will forfeit an additional $100,000 if the company violates any PUCO rules governing the marketing and solicitation practices of competitive retail natural gas suppliers or violates the terms of the agreement within one year of today’s Commission approval.

DEOE must also present all natural gas marketing and solicitation materials that will be distributed to prospective non-aggregation residential customers of Dominion East Ohio to PUCO staff for pre-approval and to OCC for input.

The company must also notify customers who enrolled with DEOE and selected a fixed-rate contract, as a result of the solicitation which led to OCC’s complaint, that the company will waive the applicable cancellation fee for the term of the contract. Customers who selected a variable-rate contract may cancel their variable-rate contracts without paying an early cancellation fee.

A copy of today’s Commission finding and order is available at www.PUCO.ohio.gov. Click on the link to the Docketing Information System (DIS) and enter the case number 09-257-GA-CSS.

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09-257-GA-CSS