Outfox the Market, the trading name of Foxglove Energy Supply, is a British energy supplier based in Leicester, United Kingdom. It was founded in 2017.
In 2019, the Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint against Outfox the Market, which forbade it from publishing false claims to the cheapest supplier in the UK, or the cheapest green energy supplier in the UK. [1]
In 2021, it came top in a Which? customer satisfaction survey. [2] [3] In July 2022, it came second in a survey by Citizens Advice. [4] However, later in the same month, energy regulator Ofgem criticised the company for failing to take action on customer's direct debit problems. [5]
In December 2022, Ofgem served the company with a notice of failure to comply with a confirmed Provisional Order within the meaning of section 25 of the Electricity Act 1989 and section 28 of the Gas Act 1986. [6] The notice, issued because of Ofgem's concerns over the company's financial viability, forbade Foxglove from taking on any new customers, or taking any money out of the company. In June 2023, the ban on new customers was lifted; however the company was still restricted from making any non-essential payments. [7]
In July 2023, Outfox the Market was fined £1.8 million for repeatedly failing to provide Ofgem with appropriate financial data when required. [8]
Scottish Power Limited is a vertically integrated energy company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It is a subsidiary of Spanish utility firm Iberdrola.
Centrica plc is a British multinational energy and services company with its headquarters in Windsor, Berkshire. Its principal activity is the supply of electricity and gas to consumers in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), supporting the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority, is the government regulator for the electricity and downstream natural gas markets in Great Britain. It was formed by the merger of the Office of Electricity Regulation (OFFER) and Office of Gas Supply (Ofgas).
Good Energy Group PLC is a British energy company based in Chippenham, Wiltshire that provides services in the electrification of transport and decentralised renewable energy generation such as domestic solar panels. The company is also an energy retailer, and built a portfolio of wind and solar generation which was sold in 2022. Founded by Juliet Davenport, its CEO is Nigel Pocklington.
The energy policy of the United Kingdom refers to the United Kingdom's efforts towards reducing energy intensity, reducing energy poverty, and maintaining energy supply reliability. The United Kingdom has had success in this, though energy intensity remains high. There is an ambitious goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in future years, but it is unclear whether the programmes in place are sufficient to achieve this objective. Regarding energy self-sufficiency, UK policy does not address this issue, other than to concede historic energy security is currently ceasing to exist.
E.ON UK is a British energy company and one of the largest suppliers of energy in the UK, following its acquisition of Npower. It is a subsidiary of E.ON of Germany and one of the Big Six energy suppliers. It was founded in 1989 as Powergen, and was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It has been a subsidiary of E.ON since 1 July 2002.
Npower Limited is a British supplier of gas and electricity to businesses. It has been a subsidiary of E.ON UK since January 2019. The company was formerly known as Innogy plc and was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
British Gas is an energy and home services provider in the United Kingdom. It is the trading name of British Gas Services Limited and British Gas New Heating Limited, both subsidiaries of Centrica. Serving around twelve million homes in the United Kingdom, British Gas is the biggest energy supplier in the country, and is considered one of the Big Six dominating the gas and electricity market in the United Kingdom. Their lines are open from 8am to 5pm on weekdays, and 9am to 6pm on weekends.
Utility Warehouse is a multiservice provider based in London, England that uses multi-level marketing to obtain customers through independent distributors. It is a brand name of its parent company, Telecom Plus. It currently handles approximately 1 million customer accounts. Utility Warehouse supplies customers with landline telephony, mobile telephony, broadband, gas, and electricity. The Utility Warehouse brand is the primary engine of revenue generation for Telecom Plus.
The availability and uptake of green electricity in the United Kingdom has increased in the 21st century. There are a number of suppliers offering green electricity in the United Kingdom. In theory these types of tariffs help to lower carbon dioxide emissions by increasing consumer demand for green electricity and encouraging more renewable energy plant to be built. Since Ofgem's 2014 regulations there are now set criteria defining what can be classified as a green source product. As well as holding sufficient guarantee of origin certificates to cover the electricity sold to consumers, suppliers are also required to show additionality by contributing to wider environmental and low carbon funds.
OVO Energy is a major energy supplier based in Bristol, England.
Shell Energy Retail Limited was a British consumer gas, electricity and broadband provider. Formerly a subsidiary of Shell, the business was acquired by Octopus Energy in December 2023.
The Big Six were the United Kingdom's largest retail suppliers of gas and electricity, who dominated the market following liberalisation in the late 1990s. By 2002, six companies – British Gas, EDF Energy, E.ON, RWE npower, Scottish Power and SSE – had emerged from the 15 former incumbent monopoly suppliers.
Solarplicity Energy Limited was a renewable energy company based in Hertfordshire, England. In August 2019 the company became the 13th energy supplier to collapse since 2018, affecting around 7,500 domestic and 500 business customers.
Spark Energy was an electricity and gas supplier in the United Kingdom, established in 2007 and headquartered in Selkirk, Scottish Borders. Its operating company Spark Energy Supply Ltd entered administration in November 2018, and industry regulator Ofgem appointed OVO Energy to take over Spark Energy's 290,000 customer accounts; OVO continues to run Spark as a separate brand, but is in the process of migrating all its customers to the SSE brand.
Collective Switching is where customers negotiate a group deal with a utility service such as gas or electricity. This is popular in the United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, and Ireland. In the UK, collective switching has always been managed by a third party, which gathers the consumers together into a grouping via a registration or membership model and then takes their collective demand to the supply base and obtains from a supplier preferential or bespoke rates for that group of consumers.
Extra Energy Supply Ltd was an independent retail energy supplier based in Birmingham, England. It supplied gas and electricity to domestic and small business customers. Extra Energy was part of Extra Holding, which operates in industries including telecoms, travel, insurance and energy.
Our Power was an energy supply company backed by the Scottish government, one of the first in the UK to operate on a non-profit distribution basis. Our Power was entirely asset-locked, being owned by social housing providers, community organisations and local authorities.
Bulb Energy Ltd., trading as Bulb, was an energy supply company in the United Kingdom acquired by Octopus Energy in 2022. Founded in 2013, the company attracted venture capital from DST Global and Magnetar Capital and ran at a financial loss while achieving rapid growth in customers. Bulb claimed to provide electricity and gas from renewable or off-set sources. As of November 2021, it had a share of approximately 5-6% of the UK energy market and was considered the seventh largest in the country.
Utilita Energy is an electricity and gas supplier operating in the United Kingdom. Utilita began trading in 2003, specialising in pay-as-you-go metering.