A Texas woman filed a class action lawsuit this week $ 1 billion in damages against Griddy, a Texas electricity retailer who was involved in illegal prize distribution during the suit according to the suit widespread failure that swept through the state last week.
Houston resident Lisa Khoury filed the lawsuit on behalf of the myriad Griddy clients who may be dealing excessive bills after the winter storm that exhausted power for countless residents in the state. Per Khoury’s suither monthly electricity bills have fluctuated between $ 200 and $ 250 until this monthFor the period bbetween February 1 and February 19, she claims that Griddy has been charged her $ 9,546
Griddy, for those who don’t know, is a service that allows Texas residents to pay for what the company claims to be “wholesale prices”For electricity, instead of the fixed price that other providers might charge. Aside from these rates, Griddy also charges a flat rate of about $ 10 per month for membership.
But these wholesale prices started to rise during the power outages affecting millions of Texans, according to the suit. While wholesale prices typically charged $ 50 per megawatt hour, Reuters points out the state’s Public Utilities Commission raised the ceiling to $ 9,000 per megawatt hour.
“Class action is the most efficient and effective way for Griddy’s clients to come together and combat these predatory prices,” said Derek Potts, a lawyer representing Khoury in the case. “At the moment we don’t know how many people could be affected by this, but there are probably thousands of customers who have received these scandalous bills.”
G / O Media can receive a commission
A tab on the company FAQ page covers some of the gouging claims made in the pack:
The reason the wholesale prices were so high was that on Monday, February 15, the Texas Public Utility Commission (PUCT) quoted its ‘full authority over ERCOT’ to determine that ERCOT set a price at $ 9 / kWh until the grid the power outage could solve. be ravaged by the icy winter storm.
Another page on Griddy’s site what the company wants to fight for ‘for and alongside’ [its] customers for fairness and accountability ‘, and will prompt the state’s’ political appointees’ to explain why price increases were’ allowed ‘during what is no doubt one of the worst power cuts in the history of the country.
In Griddy’s defense, the lawsuit alleges that the company emailed its customers on Feb. 14– just before some of these skyrocketing prices were charged – with the caveat that they should try to find a flat-rate provider for the next few days. But Khoury says this was too little, too late. By the time she received that email, the suit says, she and countless other Griddy customers were unable to make the switch, as most carriers weren’t taking on new customers during the storm.
By the time Khoury finally managed to switch providers on February 19, she had already brought in thousands of dollars in costsOther Griddy customers have accounts from more than $ 5,000despite days without electricity or heat.