If a broker arranged your business energy before October 2024…
…you could be owed thousands, taken as a hidden commission nobody ever told you about.
Whether you’re a business, a school, a charity or any other organisation: if a broker arranged your energy, this applies to you.
Fair warning: this is a long page. But if a broker ever arranged your energy, what’s buried in here could be worth thousands to you. Give it ten minutes, top to bottom. It might be the best-paid ten minutes of your week.
Most brokers took their fee as commission from the supplier and buried it in your unit rate. It sounds trivial, 1 to 3p a unit, but on a £30,000-a-year bill that’s up to around £10,000 quietly taken over a three-year contract.
Getting paid is fair; hiding how much is what the Supreme Court has clarified you may be able to challenge. One manufacturer did exactly that with more than £130,000 of hidden commission, and the Supreme Court gave judgment in its favour. Let’s find out what it could be worth to you.
But first, let’s explain how we got here...
How a British manufacturer challenged £130,000 of hidden energy commission, and what it means for your business.
Expert Tooling and Automation Limited is a manufacturer with heavy electricity use, and it used a broker, Utilitywise, to arrange its supply with the supplier, Engie Power Limited. The first contract ran five years from 2016, and four more followed.
Expert Tooling and Automation Limited claimed that more than £130,000 had been added to its energy bills as a result of the commission arrangements Utilitywise negotiated with Engie, across five contracts. The business had been told a commission would be paid, but it was never told the amount, or that it sat inside the rate on every single bill.
Utilitywise later went under, so Expert Tooling and Automation Limited pursued the supplier instead. The legal principle came from the Supreme Court’s 2025 ruling in Hopcraft v Close Brothers, which clarified the law on undisclosed commissions. Whether any particular commission is recoverable turns on the facts of that case. On the strength of that, the Supreme Court allowed Expert Tooling and Automation Limited’s appeal by consent in January 2026 and entered judgment in its favour. The terms were not made public.
The timeline
What this means for you: where a broker’s commission was never properly disclosed, that money may be recoverable, and a claim may reach back years. Every case is different, and your own figure can only come from a proper assessment, but the Expert Tooling ruling shows just how much can be at stake.
Source: Expert Tooling and Automation Limited v Engie Power Limited [2025] EWCA Civ 292; appeal allowed by consent and judgment entered for Expert Tooling, Supreme Court, January 2026 (UKSC 2025/0055), following Hopcraft v Close Brothers (2025). Reported in national and certain trade press. The £130,000 is the commission the claimant said had been added to its bills. No recovery figure has been made public.
Don’t take our word for it. The energy regulator and the courts have both put a number on how far the hidden commission went.
If your broker never clearly explained what they were earning, thousands of pounds could be buried in your bills too.
Sources: Ofgem, the energy regulator: microbusiness broker-commission review, 2020 to 2021 (the £24,000 and 41% cases). Weardale Entertainments Ltd v Engie Power Ltd [2024], Leeds County Court (the 3p per kWh figure).
You knew your broker got paid. They just never told you how much.
And just so you know, this wasn’t a few rogue firms. On Ofgem’s own estimate, it was simply how the industry worked: around £2bn a year, across roughly two million business contracts.
Here’s how it worked. A broker found you a contract and sorted the paperwork, and most people assumed the supplier paid them for it, not you. Fair enough, that’s how it was pitched.
And the supplier did pay them, a commission for signing you up. Nothing wrong with that by itself.
The catch is what you were never told: how much it came to, and that the broker often set that figure themselves. Because it didn’t land as a separate invoice. It was built straight into your unit rate, often 1 to 3p on every kWh, paid back on every unit of every bill for the life of the contract.
Over a few years, that quietly climbs into five figures.
Now, here’s what this could look like on your own bill.
Rough guide only. This is not a quote, an offer or a promise. It illustrates what a commission of 1 to 3p per unit could have added to your bills on a typical rate. It is not a sum you would receive, and it does not confirm you have a claim. Your actual position depends on your real rate, usage and contract, and can only be confirmed by a formal assessment from the solicitors. Nothing here is legal or financial advice.
It may be your money. Let’s find out.
Do you tick these four boxes? Most broker-arranged businesses do.
If most of these sound like you, it’s worth checking. Not sure on one? That’s fine, the check will sort it.
Below the threshold? You can still register now. On its own, a smaller claim (under roughly £10,000 of commission) isn’t economic for a solicitor to run individually, so those aren’t taken on today. But smaller businesses aren’t shut out for good: the courts are increasingly allowing many low-value claims to be brought together as a single group claim, which can make them viable collectively. That route is still developing, and we can’t promise how or when it will open, so there’s no pressure either way. Register your details now and we’ll keep them on file, ready to come straight back to you the moment a group claim can take smaller cases like yours.
You don’t have to run a factory to be owed.
High-energy businesses like pubs, care homes, factories and hotels tend to have the most buried in their bills, simply because they burn energy morning to night. But they’re far from the only ones.
Any business that used a broker could be owed, whatever line you’re in, as long as your energy spend runs to roughly £500 a month or more. Above that, it’s worth a look.
It’s broader than people expect. It makes no difference whether you’re a sole trader, a partnership or a limited company, and it isn’t only ordinary businesses: charities, schools, GP practices, clubs and places of worship sit on the same broker-arranged contracts, so the same applies. It also covers gas as well as electricity.
What this actually costs you.
Nothing to find out. Nothing up front. And if a claim succeeds, the fee comes out of the money recovered, never out of your pocket. No, it isn’t “free”: here’s exactly how it works.
Nothing.
The eligibility check is free, and so is sending your bills. You’re never asked for a card, a deposit or a fee to find out where you stand.
A success fee, taken from what’s recovered.
If a claim succeeds, the solicitors are paid on a no-win-no-fee basis. Most of their fee is recovered from the other side. Your own contribution is a capped percentage of your compensation, plus VAT, agreed with you in writing before you commit, and it comes out of your award, never out of your own pocket and never more than the cap. So it isn’t free, but you only ever pay from money you wouldn’t otherwise have had.
You’re not billed for the legal work.
If it doesn’t come off, you aren’t charged for the solicitors’ own work. That’s what no-win-no-fee means.
How Profitwize is paid, and how your firm is chosen: We work with an established claims company that specialises in these cases and has a panel of law firms behind it. Because no two claims are the same, they match your case to the firm best placed to win it, rather than it landing with whoever’s next on a list. For introducing you, the claims company pays us a fee, it never comes from you, and it’s never added to your claim. Our job is simply to find out whether you’re owed, and if you are, put you with the people best placed to get it back.
In plain terms: you only ever pay a fee if you win, and it comes out of your winnings.
The whole journey, and where the choice stays yours.
Sending us your documents doesn’t commit you to anything. Here’s what happens, who handles each step, and the point where you decide whether to go ahead.
You send us your information
To get started the solicitors need very little: your organisation’s name and company or charity number, your meter numbers (the MPAN for electricity and MPRN for gas, both on your bill), your supplier, and rough contract dates, plus a signed authority so they can request your records. To take a claim forward they’ll also want your signed contracts, bills across the term, and any broker correspondence, but they help you gather all of it.
You · gather a few documentsWe review it and size up the potential
We look at what you’ve sent and estimate the potential quantum, whether there’s enough there to be worth a solicitor’s time. If there isn’t, we tell you plainly.
Us · the first reviewA call with the law firm
If it’s worth taking further, you speak with the SRA-regulated law firm. They go through your situation, answer your questions, and assess whether there’s a claim.
You & the solicitors · one callThe law firm decides whether there’s a case
After that call and their own assessment, the solicitors decide whether to take it on. It’s their professional judgement, not a foregone conclusion, and not every enquiry becomes a claim.
The law firm · the decisionYou see the full terms, then you choose
If they’ll take it on, the terms and the success fee are put in writing first. Only when you’re happy do you sign to appoint them, and the process with your supplier begins. The decision to go ahead is always yours.
You · your decision, your choiceThe solicitors send your welcome pack
Once you appoint them, the solicitors send their no-win-no-fee agreement and a few forms to sign, and confirm your identity, as the law requires. Your claim starts once these come back.
The law firm · your paperworkYour claim is assessed
The solicitors assess your claim’s strength and likely value. It only goes further if it stands up to that assessment, so even at this stage a claim that won’t succeed is stopped rather than run.
The law firm · the assessmentThrough to settlement
From here a named handler runs your claim, keeps you updated, and takes it through to settlement. When it settles, the compensation is paid to the solicitors, their agreed fee is taken, and the balance comes to you by bank transfer, usually within about a month. Settlements often include interest on top of the commission, so you may get back more than the commission alone. How long the whole process takes varies from claim to claim, but you’ll always have a point of contact.
The law firm · through to settlementNothing is decided until you decide it. Up to the moment you sign to appoint the solicitors, you’re under no obligation. Sending documents simply lets the right people work out whether you have a claim worth making. And even after you sign, the solicitors give you a cooling-off period and set out exactly how and when you can cancel, before you commit to anything.
Some things to consider.
Nobody can promise you a number.
Any figure quoted before the solicitors’ full assessment is a guess, from us or anyone else. Be wary of firms that promise amounts up front.
Sooner is better than later.
Right now this is still ahead of the crowd, but that won’t hold. As awareness spreads and the floodgates open, claims will pour in and the system slows, which means a longer wait to see your money even when your claim succeeds. Get your case moving now, while you’re in front of it, rather than joining the back of a much longer queue later.
Four questions. No paperwork. No cost, no obligation.
Answer honestly. “Not sure” is a perfectly good answer. If it doesn’t qualify, we’ll tell you straight.
Prefer to talk to a human first? That’s completely fine. We usually reply to WhatsApp fastest.
Asked and answered, plainly.
Is this a scam?
A fair question, this sector attracts chancers. We’re a local business based in Nottingham, and there’s nothing to pay to find out where you stand. The claims come from real court rulings on hidden broker commission that have been covered in the national and certain trade press. Search “energy broker hidden commission,” read for yourself, then come back.
Are you regulated?
Yes, in the way this kind of claim requires. Profitwize is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for data protection. Our introducer role sits outside FCA regulation because business energy claims aren’t an FCA-regulated activity in the first place, and the claim itself is handled by an SRA-regulated law firm that carries professional indemnity insurance as required by the SRA. If you’re ever unhappy with their service, complaints go to the firm first and then, if needed, to the independent Legal Ombudsman.
But my broker actually saved me money.
They may well have, and brokers are entitled to be paid. The claim isn’t about using a broker. It’s about commission that was hidden inside your unit rate without telling you the amount. You can have got a decent deal and still have paid thousands in commission you were never told about.
I’ve switched supplier or gone direct since then. Can I still claim?
Yes. The claim is about a past contract a broker arranged for you, not the deal you’re on now. You don’t need to still be with that broker, or even on that contract. If a broker arranged your energy at any point in the last few years, and the commission was never properly disclosed, it’s worth checking, whoever you buy from today.
What happens if my claim doesn’t succeed?
You pay nothing for the solicitors’ own work, and that’s what no-win-no-fee means. Where protection against the other side’s costs is needed, the solicitors arrange suitable cover, such as insurance, and explain exactly what applies to your claim before you commit, so you’ll always know your position on costs up front.
Can I change my mind after I sign up?
Yes. The solicitors give you a cooling-off period after you sign, and set out exactly how and when you can cancel. And if you ever want to stop later, they’ll always talk you through your options first.
Will claiming affect my energy supply?
No. A supplier can’t end a live contract because you’ve made a claim, and it won’t disrupt your supply. The one thing worth being straight about is that a supplier may be a little less keen to quote you at renewal. Your claim relates to historic contracts and is handled between the solicitors and the other side, so you’re not confronting anyone yourself.
What if the broker who arranged it has gone out of business?
You can still claim. The claim runs against the energy supplier that paid the commission, not the broker, so a broker going under doesn’t end it. That’s exactly what happened in the Expert Tooling case. It can make gathering the paperwork harder, but it doesn’t defeat the claim.
Is there VAT to pay on top of the fee?
Usually yes. The solicitors’ fee attracts VAT, and it isn’t recovered from the other side. Depending on your VAT position you may be able to reclaim it in the normal way, but that depends on your circumstances, so it’s worth checking with your accountant so there are no surprises.
How long does a claim take?
It varies, there’s no fixed timescale, and it depends on your claim and whether the other side settles or it has to go further. You’ll have a named contact keeping you updated throughout. Anyone promising a firm timescale up front is guessing.
Does any of this become public?
No. Settlements are almost always confidential, covered by a non-disclosure agreement, so nothing becomes public. That only changes if a claim goes all the way to court, which most don’t.
Who we areThe wise old owl on your side of the meter.
Profitwize is a Nottinghamshire business with one job: finding money that UK businesses are owed or quietly overpaying. Energy commission claims are where we start, because that’s where the law has just moved in your favour.
The only question left is whether it happened to you.
You’ve seen how the commission was hidden, and the kind of business it happens to. Four quick questions tell you if yours is worth assessing. It’s free, and you’re under no obligation. And there’s every reason not to wait: right now you’re ahead of the rush, and the businesses that move first are the ones seen first. Don’t hand that advantage away by leaving it in a drawer.
Or email brett@profitwizeclaims.com