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More than 40 hotels have joined a £2bn legal claim with law firm Harcus Parker with the aim to get compensation from energy companies who are alleged to have paid secret commissions to third-party brokers.
The undisclosed broker commissions, which were added onto the unit cost of gas and electricity, are said to have falsely inflated energy prices for up to 2 million businesses and organisations in the UK.
The claims come at a time when hoteliers face a variety of increased costs caused by high energy prices, increased food and drinks costs and higher wages.
As a result, Harcus Parker is launching this group litigation to reclaim these secret commissions from the energy suppliers who paid the money to brokers without customers’ knowledge.
So far, the firm is representing 45 hotels, but believes there are thousands more who could be eligible to join the legal claim.
Damon Parker, senior partner at Harcus Parker, said: “We believe that there must be thousands more hotels that are eligible to join the claim. Hotels are generally high consumers of energy. With claims stretching back years we would expect many hoteliers to have a claim worth thousands of pounds.
“Like so many sectors we’re aware that hotels are suffering from increased costs in so many areas. We hope that by returning these commissions it will help ease some of the financial burden.”
He added: “I would urge any hotelier who has not yet joined the legal action to contact us to see how we can help.”
Research conducted by the law firm found that one energy supplier offered brokers as much as 10p/kWh in commissions that were then added to customers’ bills, frequently without their knowledge.
A large number of suppliers also offered brokers secret commissions of between 1p to 3p/kWh.
