Terms and Conditions
Smarter Business Terms and Conditions (“Terms”)
Please read these Terms and Conditions (“Terms and Conditions”) carefully before using the https://smarterbusiness.co.uk/ website and/or the service(s) offered by Smarter Business Ltd. It is important that you read these Terms and Conditions as these principal terms will come into effect once you use any of Smarter Business’ services.
Your access to and use of the service is conditioned on your acceptance of and compliance with these terms. These terms apply to all visitors, users and others who access or use the service.
By accessing or using the service, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you disagree with any part of the terms, then you may not access the service.
Definitions
❖ Agreement – the contractual relationship between Smarter Business and the Customer as set out in these terms and conditions and Letter of Authority.
❖ Climate Change Levy (CCL) – A tax on the electricity, natural gas, coal and liquid petroleum gas used by businesses, agriculture and the public sector. The CCL has been introduced to help the UK meet its emissions targets, which will help combat climate change. The CCL is intended to encourage businesses to use less energy more efficiently.
❖Contract – the contract entered into by you with the Supplier for the supply of energy and as part of the Services and any extensions to this Agreement.
❖ Credit Score – Each business is rated on a scale of 1-100. The higher your score is, the better. If you have a high rating, it indicates a stronger financial position.
❖Distribution Use of System (DUOS) Charges: DUoS charges are added to all business electricity bills to cover the costs of maintaining the electricity distribution network. Taking effect from 01 April 2022, Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) decreased the residual charges (p/kWh) and replaced these as a fixed cost within the standing charges. Capacity charges (previously billed as a p/kVa/day), are incorporated into the fixed charge based on “capacity bands”; examples of these charges can be seen in the Distribution Use of System Charging statements published by the DNO’s. The percentage of cost that moves into the fixed charge differs across each of the distribution networks.
❖Letter of Authority (LOA) – A legal document that authorises Smarter Business to correspond with services on behalf of you or your business – known as the ‘principal’. The letter will specify the tasks the third party can handle for the principal.
❖ Micro Business Customer – A non-domestic consumer that meets one of the following criteria:
➢ Employs fewer than 10 employees (or their full-time equivalent) and has an annual turnover or balance sheet no greater than €2 million; or
➢ Uses no more than 100,000 kWh of electricity per year; or
➢ Uses no more than 293,000 kWh of gas per year.
❖ Standing charge – The amount you pay each month to cover the cost of supplying your business with gas and electricity and keeping your business connected to the energy network.
❖ Take or Pay – Under the take-or-pay clauses, the customer (buyer of a supplier/seller) is required to either pay the price corresponding to certain pre-agreed quantities of natural gas and offtake said quantities, or pay their corresponding price regardless of whether or not the quantities have been purchased.
❖ Targeted Charge Review (TCR) – The TCR is an Ofgem-led (the energy regulator) project to review the pricing methodology from industry parties to align them with modernising the electricity network. Included in the review are changes to the following industry charges which help form the structure of electricity contract pricing.
❖Third Party Intermediary (TPI) – Includes switching websites, energy brokers and energy efficiency advice providers who interact with energy consumers. TPIs can offer advice and products to assist with a range of functions, including energy procurement, efficiency and management.
❖ Transmission Network Use of System (TNUOS) Charges: Depending on location, a fixed daily charge will cover between 88% and 100% of the expected Transmission Network Use of System (TNUoS) costs. Businesses will be assigned a charging band based on their Authorised Supply Capacity (KVa), which will determine their daily charge. The remaining TNUoS charges will be recovered using a unit rate approach, based on the current Triad methodology, but with significantly reduced rates applied to the three half-hourly Triad periods.
➢ Meter Operator agreement (MOP) – this covers the installation of the meter, maintenance and necessary communication equipment for sending data consumption.
➢ Data Collector (DC). Data Collectors are responsible for collecting data from the metering systems and are required to validate the metering data. The data is forwarded on to the Data Aggregator.
➢ Data Aggregator (DA) – The Data Aggregator receives the data from the Data Collector(s) so that this can be validated and used for billing.
❖ Volume Tolerance – A volume tolerance clause is part of some of the Terms and Conditions of the energy contract you sign (supplier dependent). It means you must use a certain percentage of your calculated annual energy consumption. Most suppliers have an arbitrary 80/120 threshold set. This means you must use a minimum of 80% of your calculated annual energy consumption and a maximum of 120%. If you fall outside these thresholds, each supplier has their own penalty which they may impose on you.
Contracts & Failure to Go Live
While not all contracts go live, every effort should be made to support the registration process. In order to avoid any undue liability, please be advised that should you not fulfil your contractual requirements with your chosen supplier, you may be charged an early termination fee by the supplier.
In such circumstances, Smarter Business reserves the right to charge the customer a one-off “failure to go live” fee of £500 per meter exclusive of VAT, or 10% of the total commission we would have earned on the contract introduction (per meter), whichever is higher. This fee is in addition to any charges the supplier may seek to recover for the failure to go live contract. It does not represent an unfair gain or windfall on the part of Smarter Business that is in the nature of or is capable of falling within the definition of a penalty.
Customer’s Obligations
The Customer agrees:
(i) to cooperate with Smarter Business in all matters relating to the Services and not in any way through acts or omissions hinder, prevent or delay the provision of the Services;
(ii) to comply at all times promptly and completely with both this Agreement and any terms and conditions of the relevant Supplier relating to the Contract including for the avoidance of doubt the obligation to make all payments promptly to the Supplier under the Contract;
(iii) to provide such information, data or documents as Smarter Business may request from time to time;
(vi) to ensure that all information and documents provided to Smarter Business is complete, up to date and accurate at all times;
(v) to provide such assistance as Smarter Business may reasonably require from time to time in relation to the Services;
(vi) to immediately inform Smarter Business in the event there is any change in the Customer’s circumstances which may affect the provision of the Services and or impact the Contract or proposed Contract;
(vii) to comply with the provisions of the Bribery Act 2010 and any other applicable legislation;
(viii) not at any time whether directly or indirectly instruct, direct, permit, cause or allow the Supplier to cease or withhold the payment of any commission to Smarter Business; and
(ix) not at any time to have entered into or enter into any other contract (for any reason including due to a change in tenancy or change in occupancy) for the supply of energy (“Other Contract”) for the intended period of the Contract whereby that Other Contract provides energy and/or the Services, whether in whole or in part, to be provided under the Contract.
Change of Tenancy
Where a customer enters into a contract through Smarter Business, but permanently vacates the relevant premises either before the supply of energy commences or during the period of supply under that Contract the Contract will terminate. This is called a change of tenancy (“a COT”).
A COT involves either (i) a party not connected to or associated with the Customer taking over the premises (a party is connected to the Customer if it falls within the definition set out in sections 1122 and 1123 Corporation Tax Act 2010) or (ii) the premises becoming vacant for a minimum period of three months following the Customer’s departure.
Smarter Business’ fees are adjusted by a Supplier if a COT occurs. It is therefore important that Smarter Business receives from the Customer at least fourteen Working Days before the date of vacating the premises written confirmation of the change together with evidence of the COT satisfactory to Smarter Business, this may include (a non exhaustive list by way of example only) a land sale contract/TR1, or an assignment or surrender of a lease certified by the Customer’s solicitor.
The written notice from the Customer must include a letter from the Customer’s solicitor confirming that the vacation of the premises is a COT as set out above and provide sufficient detail to enable Smarter Business to satisfy itself as to the nature of the COT.
Failure to notify Smarter Business in the event of a COT may incur a fee for the loss/reduction in the commission the supplier pays to Smarter Business. In those circumstances, Smarter Business reserves the right to charge the Customer a one off fee of £500 exclusive of VAT per meter or the total value of the Commission Payment Smarter Business would have received in relation to the Contract, whichever is the higher figure.
How We Work
Unless otherwise agreed, Smarter Business is a TPI that does not charge you any upfront fees for its procurement services. Our business is based on providing great customer service and negotiating competitive prices for our customers.
We will ask you for a Letter of Authority. This simply gives us permission to talk to our panel of suppliers about your energy needs and to gather historic usage data from your existing supplier and our industry data. We can then effectively negotiate prices from our panel of suppliers. We will then present prices and options to you directly from the utility suppliers who we believe are most appropriate.
Unless otherwise specified, these prices will include a commission for us. You are under no obligation whatsoever to accept any of these offers.
By agreeing a contract via our service, you are accepting that your chosen supplier will then pay Smarter Business a fee or commission for the introduction and management of the transfer process.
Depending on the supplier, the current industry norm used for remuneration from suppliers to energy brokers/consultants is an ‘uplift commission fee’ which is included in the price we offer, typically by way of an uplift or flat fee within your unit cost or standing charge for energy. Unless otherwise specified, Commission payable to us will come directly from your chosen supplier. Unless an agreement is in place for you to pay commission for our services in advance, the commission Smarter Business receives from suppliers will be
included in the price you pay. There are no additional payments that the customer has to pay directly to Smarter Business for this service (unless otherwise specified).
We may also receive commissions for other value add services we provide and these include;
- Business Waste Management
- Business Water Rates
- IT Managed Services
- Meter Operator agreement (MOP)
- Data Collector (DC)
- Data Aggregator (DA)
- Meter Management Services
- Facilities Maintenance
- Bureau Services (Bill Validation, Tenant Rebilling)
- Business Energy
The commission we receive from each supplier also pays for the additional services we may offer you, including ongoing support, a dedicated Sales Consultant, regular bill checking (where applicable), query management, dispute resolution, regulatory advice and renewal management as part of our service to you.
To quantify commission, the below example best explains how it’s calculated for energy. Smarter Business may secure a Proposed Day Rate (pence) price of 35.00p/kWh and then add an uplift of 1.00 p/kWh. This would then make the price 36.00p/kWh. The uplift depends on the amount of work we have undertaken, time invested and services provided, your energy usage and spend, length of contract, credit risk etc. Based on the above example, an energy client using 10,000 kWh would spend £3,600.00 on energy per annum. We would therefore receive a commission of £100.00 which allows us to continue offering our services to you.
Commission values vary depending on the amount of energy used by the customer throughout the contract period, which does fluctuate.
Cooling Off Period
There is no cooling-off period after you agree to the contract (even when this agreement is made via verbal consent rather than in writing).
Government Regulated Charges
Smarter Business cannot be held responsible for the change in any contract prices presented where the change has been accounted for under the supplier’s terms and conditions.
Consumption Confirmation
In the eventuality that your business operations change (or) there is a likelihood of change, kindly notify Smarter Business should these changes directly affect your consumption as this affects pricing and you may be charged more.
Services
The site and/or services are aimed at businesses operating in the UK for commercial price comparison services between various energy and other service providers and overseeing the change of one provider to another (the Services). Outside of business energy and bill checking/invoice services, we offer a range of other multi-product services, including merchant services, business telecoms, business water/wastewater, business waste management services, and facilities maintenance.
Please review our website for a list of services offered. https://smarterbusiness.co.uk/ The services described on our site are solely for UK businesses and are therefore governed by the law of England and Wales.
You confirm that you will provide us with the relevant information such as (and not limited to) copies of relevant data (e.g. bills) in order for us to carry out the relevant searches and, where appropriate, contact your existing suppliers or relevant industry platforms on your behalf. You agree to allow us to retain copies of this relevant information.
Any agreements or arrangements that you enter into with any supplier will be subject to the terms and conditions of the relevant supplier. You acknowledge that where relevant, we may pass your details to suppliers or potential suppliers for the purpose of attracting offers to supply services from such suppliers or potential suppliers.
Share of Savings
Customers who are registered for Bureau Services are eligible to request an analysis of their historical invoices (as part of any of our services to you) which may lead to a saving of up to 50%. A charge will therefore be levied to any savings/refunds or credit obtained as a result thereof.
Our Liability
The Customer acknowledges and agrees that by entering into the Contract the Customer contracts directly with the Supplier and not Smarter Business for the supply of energy. The Customer therefore further acknowledges that Smarter Business incurs no liability arising from or in connection with the Customer’s obligations and liabilities arising under the Contract.
The Agreement does not seek to avoid Smarter Business liability to the Customer where such liability arises from dishonesty on the part of Smarter Business or death or personal injury on the part of the Customer.
Smarter Business’ total liability (including any principal, interest, costs and charges whatsoever and howsoever arising) to the Customer shall not in any event exceed the amount of the Commission Payment received by Smarter Business.
The Customer acknowledges and agrees that Smarter Business, its representatives, agents and employees shall incur no liability to the Customer by virtue of the Agreement or in relation to it save where such liability is incapable of being excluded by law.
Subject to the above Smarter Business incurs no liability to the Customer that arises under or in connection with this Agreement in respect of:
(i) loss of profits;
(ii) loss of sales or business;
(iii) loss of agreements or contracts;
(iv) loss of anticipated savings;
(v) loss of or damage to goodwill; or
(vi) indirect or consequential loss.
Should the Customer assert liability on the part of Smarter Business then it must notify Smarter Business in writing to that effect:
- within six calendar months of the first event said to give rise to such liability coming to the attention of the Customer, its agents or representatives; or
- within six calendar months of the first event said to give rise to such liability which ought reasonably to have come to the attention of the Customer.
The notice must be in writing and must identify the event and the grounds for the claim in reasonable detail and provide copies of all relevant documents and information.
Force Majeure
Neither party shall have any liability under or be deemed to be in breach of this Agreement for any delays or failures in performance of this Agreement which result from circumstances beyond the reasonable control of that party. This will include, but is not limited to, fire, lightning, explosion, war, flood, malicious damage, default of suppliers or subcontractors, or any act of local or national government or authority and any cause or circumstance whatsoever outside the reasonable control of the parties. If such circumstances continue for a continuous period of more than three months, either party may terminate this Agreement with immediate effect by giving notice to the other party.
Severance
If any provision of the applicable Agreement is prohibited by law or judged by a court to be unlawful, void or unenforceable, the provision shall, to the extent required, be severed from the applicable Agreement and rendered ineffective as far as possible without modifying the
remaining provisions of the applicable Agreement, and shall not in any way affect any other circumstances of or the validity or enforcement of the applicable Agreement.
GDPR/Data Protection
Smarter Business is fully compliant with all GDPR provisions, including but not limited to the provisions for mandatory standard contractual requirements, data processing records, breach notification process, right to erasure, data privacy policy, fair processing notices, and all applicable data protection requirements.
Smarter Business needs to gather and use certain information about individuals. These may include customers, suppliers, business contacts, employees and other people the organisation has a relationship with and/or may need to contact. Smarter Business takes data protection seriously – security rules must be followed when handling any data. The Customer acknowledges and agrees that certain customer details, including the Customer’s full name, billing/site address and other contact details may be submitted to third party categories for the purpose of Smarter Business performing our services to our customers. Non-sensitive personal data will be processed by and on behalf of the Customer in accordance with Smarter Business’ Privacy Policy, as set out in our comprehensive Privacy Policy.
The Customer, having signed a Letter of Authority, permits Smarter Business to acquire information for their supply details with a said supplier for the purpose of engaging commercially. This allows Smarter Business to provide a quotation or facilitate any contract or transfer.
Confidentiality
Any information exchanged is not intended to benefit any other person or third party in any way, and no such party will be entitled to enforce any provision of the Contract. The information disclosed by each party is confidential and may not be used or disclosed to any third party without the other’s prior written consent. We will not engage with any third party and we will not accept letters of authority issued by you to by such third parties without our prior written consent, notwithstanding that each of us may disclose such confidential information as may be required by law, court order or any governmental or regulatory authority.
Maintaining customer confidentiality is our top priority. Our business policy strictly prohibits the sharing of customer calls and/or emails at individual level. We prioritise the privacy and trust of our clients and ensure that their communication remains confidential within our organisation.
Termination
Smarter Business Ltd. reserves the right to immediately terminate our agreement with you if:
- You commit a breach of this agreement; or
- You fail to remedy a breach within 7 days of receipt of notice of the breach; ● We have reasonable grounds to suspect that the information you have provided to us or a supplier is untrue or fraudulent.
The right to terminate this agreement shall not prejudice any other right or remedy we may have in respect of any breach or any rights, obligations or liabilities accrued prior to termination.
Trademarks
The Smarter Business Ltd logo is a trademark of Smarter Business Ltd.
Governing Law and Jurisdiction
This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of England and Wales and the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
Our Website Usage & Terms and Conditions
For further information, please visit the following comprehensive breakdown of our Terms and Conditions in regard to the use of our website.
Welcome to our website. If you continue to browse and use this website, you are agreeing to comply with and be bound by the following terms and conditions of use, which together with our privacy policy govern Smarter Business relationship with you in relation to this website.
If you disagree with any part of these terms and conditions, please stop using the site immediately. The term ‘Smarter Business’ or ‘us’ or ‘we’ refers to the owner of the website whose registered office is 1 Austin Park, Yeoman Road, Ringwood, Hampshire, BH25 3FG. Our company registration number is 7076039 The term ‘you’ refers to the user or viewer of our website.
The use of this website is subject to the following terms and conditions of use:
The content of the pages of this website is for your general information and use only. It is subject to change without notice.
This website uses cookies to monitor browsing preferences. Further information on the cookies we use can be found in our privacy and cookie policy.
Neither we nor any third parties provide any warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy, timeliness, performance, completeness or suitability of the information and materials found or offered on this website for any particular purpose. You acknowledge that such information and materials may contain inaccuracies or errors and we expressly exclude liability for any such inaccuracies or errors to the fullest extent permitted by law.
Your use of any information or materials on this website is entirely at your own risk, for which we shall not be liable. It shall be your own responsibility to ensure that any products, services or information available through this website meet your specific requirements.
On submitting your details for a business energy comparison, we will call you on the number provided to discuss your options and guide you through the next steps. You have the right to request that we do not call you but this will mean we cannot provide you with the full service you have requested by completing the form.
This website contains material which is owned by or licensed to us. This material includes, but is not limited to, the design, layout, look, appearance and graphics. Reproduction is prohibited other than in accordance with the copyright notice, which forms part of these terms and conditions.
All trademarks reproduced in this website, which are not the property of, or licensed to the operator, are acknowledged on the website.
Unauthorised use of this website may give rise to a claim for damages and/or be a criminal offense.
From time to time, this website may also include links to other websites. These links are provided for your convenience to provide further information. They do not signify that we endorse the website(s). We have no responsibility for the content of the linked website(s).
Your use of this website and any dispute arising out of such use of the website is subject to the laws of England and Wales and the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.