Farmers have joined a £2 billion legal claim aimed at getting compensation from energy giants who are alleged to have paid secret commissions to third-party brokers.
The undisclosed broker commissions which were added onto the unit cost of gas and electricity are said to have falsely inflated energy prices for up to two million UK firms and organisations.
Law firm Harcus Parker is launching group litigation to reclaim these secret commissions from the energy suppliers who paid the money to brokers without customers’ knowledge.
So far, Harcus Parker is representing six farms but believes there are thousands more who would be eligible to join.
The claims come at a time when farmers face a variety of increased costs due to high energy prices, the rise in the price of chemicals and fertilisers and higher wage costs.
Damon Parker, senior partner at Harcus Parker, said: "We believe that there must be thousands more farms that are eligible to join the claim.
"Energy consumption varies hugely across the sector but for many farms we believe they have claims worth thousands of pounds.
"We hope that by helping to return some of these secret energy commissions to businesses it will help ease some of the financial uncertainty faced by farmers.
"I would urge any farmer who has not yet joined the legal action to contact us to see how we can help."
The law firm has so far signed up more than 2,000 businesses ranging from big manufacturers and high street stores and sports clubs to community organisations.
Research conducted by it found that one energy supplier offered brokers as much as 10p/kWh in commissions that were then added to customers’ bills, frequently without their knowledge.
A large number of suppliers offered brokers secret commissions of between 1p - 3p/kWh.
