TL;DR: The Undisclosed Truth About “Free” Energy Brokers
How much they make: brokers typically earn 1-4p/kWh in commission on your unit rate. For a business using 25,000 kWh a year, that is roughly £250-£1,000 a year, or £750-£3,000 over a 3-year contract.
The Illusion: 77% of UK businesses using brokers believe they aren’t charged for the service. Only 14% know they’re paying - despite commissions being embedded in virtually every contract.
The Reality: Brokers earn commission by adding “uplift” to your unit rate. If a supplier’s base rate is 22p/kWh and the broker adds 3p, you pay 25p - with the broker pocketing that 3p for every kWh you use. For typical rates by business size, see our Energy Broker Commission Rates Guide.
The Scale: In cases reported to regulators and in litigation, broker commissions have been said to reach 50% or more of total energy costs. A golf club was reportedly charged £24,000 in undisclosed fees. A care home was quoted £68,126 before challenging it.
The Solution: Ask one question: “What is the supplier’s base rate versus your commission?” If they won’t answer clearly, walk away.
The 77% Illusion
When Ofgem surveyed 1,000 UK businesses (opens in new tab) about their energy procurement, they found 77% of businesses using brokers believed they paid nothing for the service.
This isn’t naivety. It’s the result of a business model designed to obscure how brokers make money.
How “Free” Brokers Actually Get Paid
When you use a traditional energy broker, here’s what happens:
- Suppliers provide base rates - Say, 22p/kWh
- The broker adds their commission - Called “uplift” - say, 3p/kWh
- You see only the total - You’re quoted 25p/kWh, with no breakdown
- The supplier pays the broker - From the uplift they collect from you
You never receive an invoice from the broker. The commission is invisible - extracted through every unit of energy you consume over your entire contract.
This is why it “feels” free. No separate bill. No line item. No moment where you consciously pay.
But you’re paying. Every single day.
Broker commission is also often front-loaded. In one Court of Appeal judgment (opens in new tab), the court noted that a supplier paid the broker a lump sum up front worth 80% of the commission expected over the full contract - which the court found created an incentive to tie the customer into a long-term deal. This is a model-level dynamic, not a claim about any one broker you might deal with.
How Much Do Energy Brokers Make?
Energy brokers typically earn 1-4p/kWh in commission on your unit rate, paid by the supplier out of the rate you pay. Ethical brokers sit at the low end (0.5-1.5p/kWh) and standard market rates are 1-2p/kWh, but some brokers charge 4p/kWh or more. So yes, business energy brokers do charge a fee - you just rarely see it, because it is embedded in your rate rather than sent as a separate invoice.
For a business using 25,000 kWh a year on a 3-year contract, that works out at roughly £750 (1p/kWh) to £3,000 (4p/kWh) over the term, and more in documented extreme cases.
What “Free” Actually Costs
For a typical SME using 25,000 kWh annually on a 3-year contract:
| Broker Commission | Annual Cost | 3-Year Total |
|---|---|---|
| 6-10p/kWh (predatory) | £1,500-£2,500 | £4,500-£7,500 |
| 4p/kWh (aggressive) | £1,000 | £3,000 |
| 3p/kWh (common) | £750 | £2,250 |
| 2p/kWh (standard) | £500 | £1,500 |
| 1p/kWh (transparent - Meet George) | £250 | £750 |
The business paying 4p/kWh is losing £2,250 more than one using transparent pricing - for the exact same energy from the exact same supplier. Calculate what undisclosed commission might be costing your business - the results often surprise people. Our analysis of broker commission rates shows how these commissions compound at scale.
Why Businesses Don’t Know They’re Paying
Three factors keep these fees undisclosed:
No invoice, no awareness. Unlike accountants or solicitors who send bills, broker fees are embedded in your energy rate and collected by the supplier over years. There’s no discrete payment moment.
“Free comparison” marketing. Broker websites advertise “free energy comparison” and “no cost to you.” Technically defensible - you don’t pay them directly. But the supplier payment comes from your inflated rate.
Historical lack of disclosure. Until October 2024, there was no legal requirement to disclose commission. Businesses literally couldn’t find out what they were paying. Even now, disclosure happens in contract paperwork - not when comparing quotes.
Many businesses use brokers precisely because they don’t understand energy markets. They trust the broker’s recommendation. This trust is sometimes warranted - good brokers provide genuine value. But it also creates vulnerability.
The Evidence: Documented Cases
The Golf Club: 50% Commission
Evidence submitted to Ofgem during its non-domestic market review (opens in new tab) described a broker charging a golf club a reported 50% commission fee - said to have cost the club around £24,000 in undisclosed charges.
On those figures, half the bill was going to the intermediary (energy broker) rather than the supplier.
The Care Home: £68,126 Reduced to £12,606
According to figures reported by the claimant side, a care home was quoted broker fees of £68,126. When challenged, this dropped to £12,606 - an 81% reduction. A gap that large appears not to have been based on cost-to-serve, which is exactly the kind of pricing the model can produce when fees are never shown.
The £2 Billion Class Action
Law firm Harcus Parker (opens in new tab) has filed a class-action lawsuit it values at up to £2 billion on behalf of up to 2 million UK businesses, alleging systematic undisclosed commissions. According to the claim, commission reached as much as 60% of total energy costs in the most extreme cases. These figures are the claimant firm’s own and have not yet been tested at trial.
This follows the Competition and Markets Authority’s 2016 investigation (opens in new tab) which found 45% of microbusinesses stuck on expensive default tariffs, collectively overpaying by £180 million annually.
How to Find Out What You’re Really Paying
The Single Most Important Question
When speaking to any broker, ask this:
Show me the supplier’s base rate separately from your commission. What exactly am I paying you?
A good broker will answer clearly. In our view, if a broker deflects or claims they “can’t” provide this, treat it as a warning sign.
They can. The information exists in every contract.
For New Contracts (Post-October 2024)
Since 1 October 2024, Ofgem requires suppliers to disclose broker commissions (opens in new tab) in all business energy contracts. Check the “Third Party Costs” section of your contract paperwork.
The limitation: Disclosure happens at contract stage - not when comparing quotes. This is why Meet George takes a different approach: we show our 1p/kWh fee separately from the supplier’s base rate on every quote, so you can see exactly what you’re paying before you decide.
For Existing Contracts (Pre-October 2024)
- Contact your broker and ask for a commission breakdown in writing
- Compare your unit rate against current market rates - if you’re paying 28p when the market is 22p, investigate
- If you believe you were mis-sold, the Energy Ombudsman (opens in new tab) upheld 58% of broker complaints in 2024 with an average award of £894
What’s Changing
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero confirmed (opens in new tab) that Ofgem will directly regulate brokers from 2026 - including mandatory registration, conduct standards, and enforcement powers. You can track progress on Ofgem’s TPI programme page (opens in new tab).
Mandatory commission disclosure from October 2024 has increased competitive pressure on broker pricing, as customers can now compare what they’re paying. But voluntary codes have failed - only 52 of 2,700+ active brokers (2%) signed up. And be aware that even if you “shop around” on comparison sites, most route to the same underlying broker. Until mandatory regulation arrives, the onus remains on you to ask the right questions.
The Meet George Difference
We built Meet George because we believe the “free broker” model is broken.
| Factor | Traditional “Free” Broker | Meet George |
|---|---|---|
| Fee visibility | Commission embedded in rate | Our fee shown separately |
| What you pay us | Broker commission of 2-4p/kWh | Flat 1p/kWh fee |
| 3-year cost (25,000 kWh/yr) | £1,500-£3,000 | £750 |
| When you see fees | Contract signing | Quote comparison |
| Sales pressure | Commission-driven | None |
Transparent fee: a flat 1p/kWh fee, shown separately from the supplier’s base rate on every quote.
No Undisclosed Uplift: When we show you 23p/kWh total, you know it’s 22p to the supplier and 1p to us.
AI-Powered, Not Sales-Driven: Our AI assistant analyses contracts without commission incentives. No salesperson pushing you toward higher-margin deals.
The “free” broker costs you more. Every time.
The Bottom Line
The 77% of businesses who believe energy brokers are free aren’t naive. They’ve been systematically misled by a business model designed to obscure its own costs.
The question isn’t whether brokers should be paid - of course they should. The question is whether you should know what you’re paying before you agree to pay it.
We think the answer is yes.
Ready to see transparent pricing? Learn how Meet George’s 1p/kWh fee works or explore our complete guide to undisclosed broker commissions.
Ready to switch the transparent way? Join the Meet George platform waitlist - no undisclosed margins, no sales calls, no surprises.
Sources
- Ofgem - Non-domestic 2024 research report (opens in new tab) (broker awareness and the 77% figure)
- Ofgem - Non-domestic market review: findings and statutory consultation (opens in new tab) (golf club case; figures as submitted to Ofgem)
- Ofgem - Non-domestic market review decision (opens in new tab) (commission disclosure rules from October 2024)
- Ofgem - Third-Party Intermediaries (TPI) programme (opens in new tab)
- Court of Appeal - Expert Tooling and Automation Ltd v Engie Power Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 292 (opens in new tab) (front-loaded commission; 80% paid up front)
- GOV.UK - Regulating Third Party Intermediaries: government response (opens in new tab)
- GOV.UK / CMA - Energy Market Investigation (Microbusinesses) Order 2016 (opens in new tab)
- Energy Ombudsman - energyombudsman.org (opens in new tab) (broker complaints redress)
- Harcus Parker - energy litigation campaign (opens in new tab) (claimant firm; class-action figures as alleged, not yet tested at trial)
