How do energy brokers get paid?

Most businesses do not pay their energy broker directly. Instead, the supplier pays the broker a commission, and that commission is usually recovered by adding an amount to the unit rate you pay for every unit of energy across the life of the contract. You pay for the broker after all, just without ever seeing it on an invoice.

Thousands of UK businesses arrange their energy through a broker, sometimes called a 'third-party intermediary' or 'energy consultant'. The broker approaches suppliers, negotiates a deal, and sets you up on a contract. Many businesses assume this service is free, because there is no direct fee, but the cost is built into the price of every unit of energy they buy.

What is a 'secret' or 'hidden' commission?

A commission is 'secret' or 'hidden' when you were not given enough information to properly agree to it. It does not have to be completely concealed. Even if you knew in general terms that a broker 'gets paid by the supplier', that is not the same as genuinely agreeing to it with full knowledge of the facts.

A broker acting on your behalf owes you a duty of loyalty. To rely on your consent to a commission, the broker must give you full disclosure of all the material facts, not just a vague mention. Anything less is treated as a breach of that duty.

What should your broker have told you?

In the leading case on business energy commissions, the Court of Appeal set out the kinds of facts a business would want to know before agreeing to a commission. If your broker did not tell you these five things, it is a strong sign that your consent was not fully informed.

• How much the commission was, the actual amount, not just that some commission existed.
• That the commission was added to your unit price, so you, not the supplier, ultimately paid for it.
• How it affected the length of contract you were steered towards, since longer contracts can mean more commission.
• That the broker could effectively set its own commission, giving it a direct financial interest in your deal.
• That the commission was taken up-front, calculated and payable at the start, based on your estimated usage.

How has the law moved in your favour?

For years, suppliers argued that a 'partial' mention of commission was enough, and that they could only be made to pay if a business proved dishonesty. Both arguments have now fallen away following two Supreme Court decisions, in 2025 and January 2026, leaving suppliers liable to account for undisclosed commission.

In 2025 the Supreme Court, in the motor-finance case Hopcraft v Close Brothers Ltd [2025] UKSC 33, swept away the old distinction between 'fully secret' and 'half secret' commissions. In January 2026 the Supreme Court applied the same thinking to business energy by allowing the appeal in Expert Tooling and Automation Ltd v Engie Power Ltd. The upshot: partial disclosure is not full disclosure, there is no separate 'dishonesty' hurdle to clear, and the supplier that paid the commission can be made to account for it.

Could your business have a claim?

You may have a claim worth investigating if you run a business of any size, you used a broker or intermediary to arrange a gas or electricity contract, the supplier paid the broker a commission recovered through your unit rates, and you were never given the full details, especially the amount and how it was calculated.

• You run a business, of any size. Being a 'sophisticated' customer does not remove your broker's duty to you.
• You used a broker or intermediary to arrange a gas or electricity contract.
• The supplier paid the broker a commission, typically recovered through your unit rates.
• You were never given the full details, especially the amount and how it was calculated.