Paxton said the company violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act through “false, misleading, and deceptive advertising and marketing practices.”
Griddy customers are charged $10 a month as part of a wholesale price structure for electricity in lieu of a fixed rate. However, wholesale prices spiked when temperatures dropped to below freezing and those prices were passed on to customers, one Texan was hit with a $17,000 bill.
Paxton said the company’s actions are inexcusable.
“Griddy misled Texans and signed them up for services which, in a time of crisis, resulted in individual Texas each losing thousands of dollars. As Texans struggled to survive this winter storm, Griddy made the suffering even worse as it debited outrageous amounts each day. As the first lawsuit filed by my office to confront the outrageous failure of power companies, I will hold Griddy accountable for their escalation of this winter storm disaster. My office will not allow Texans to be deceived or exploited by unlawful behavior and deceptive business practices,” said Paxton.
Paxton’s lawsuit comes days after the Electric Reliability Council of Texas revoked Griddy’s access to the state’s electricity market, effectively shutting them down. ERCOT said Griddy had failed to pay some of it’s bills.
Griddy said it has been open with its customers since the beginning of the storm. “We have always been transparent and customer-centric at every step. We wanted to continue to fight for our members to get relief and that hasn’t changed,” the company said in a statement.
#gogriddy pic.twitter.com/qiUu4l7GUR
— Griddy (@GoGriddy) February 27, 2021
Griddy is also facing a $1 billion class action lawsuit related to the sky-high bills amid the storm.
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