HARTFORD — According to Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, several New England residents have filed a class-action lawsuit against Avangrid, Inc. and Eversource Energy.
The lawsuit claims the two companies caused electricity consumers to incur overcharges of $3.6 billion in a years-long scheme that impacted six states and affected 14.7 million people.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday, states that 7.1 million retail electricity customers and an overall population of 14.7 million people have been affected by Eversource and Avangrid’s “unique monopoly” spanning at least from 2013 to 2016.
“The scheme raised electric prices by at least 20 percent for those living in Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island. The complaint alleges the scheme violates multiple federal and state competition laws and state consumer protection statutes,” said the Lawfirm in a release.
“Eversource and Avangrid are two of the largest energy companies in New England, and we believe they chose to use their substantial market power to unlawfully jack-up consumers’ electric bills,” said Tom Sobol, partner at Hagens Berman, a national class-action law firm leading the case for consumers. “It appears these companies willfully engaged in this scheme for years, and we intend to help those affected reclaim their losses, and stop this behavior.”
You can read the full lawsuit here.
