52 out of 2,700, a number that should alarm every UK business owner.
Imagine an industry where 98% of operators have voluntarily chosen not to commit to basic transparency standards.
That is the reality of the UK business energy market right now.
Out of an estimated 2,700 or more brokers currently operating across the UK, only 52 have signed the TPI Code of Practice, a voluntary standard designed to protect businesses from hidden commissions, misleading sales practices and poor complaint handling. That is less than 2% of the entire sector.
The Code does not ask for anything extraordinary. It requires brokers to disclose how they are paid, show their clients all the quotes they received, operate a complaints process and belong to a dispute resolution scheme. In almost any other regulated industry, financial services, legal and insurance, these would be minimum requirements. In business energy broking, the overwhelming majority of operators have actively declined to meet them.
If your business used an energy broker to arrange its gas or electricity contract, the statistics suggest the broker you used was almost certainly not among those 52.
What Is the TPI Code of Practice?
The TPI Code of Practice is administered by RECCo, the body responsible for operating the Ofgem-regulated Retail Energy Code. It was developed in response to growing evidence of widespread mis-selling in the business energy market and it sets standards for how brokers should behave when helping businesses procure energy contracts.
Signatories commit to:
- Disclosing how they are paid, including the amount and structure of any commission
- Showing all quotes received, not just the one that earns them the highest fee
- Having a written complaints procedure so clients have a clear route to raise concerns
- Registering with an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme, such as the Energy Ombudsman, so disputes can be escalated independently
These commitments exist because the absence of them has caused significant financial harm to UK businesses for years. Brokers who do not follow these principles can, and often do, select contracts based on what earns them the most commission rather than what offers the best value for their client.
Yet fewer than one in fifty brokers has agreed to them.
Why Does It Matter Whether Your Broker Signed the Code?
Because if your broker did not sign, or even know about the Code, there is a chance they were not operating transparently when they arranged your contract.
Here is how hidden commission typically works in practice. When a broker approaches suppliers on your behalf, the supplier offers a base unit rate. The broker then adds their own margin on top of that rate often without telling you and presents the resulting price as your deal. The commission is built invisibly into every unit of gas or electricity you consume, every month, for the full length of your contract.
A business using 300,000 kWh of electricity per year, on a three-year contract with a 0.6p per kWh uplift, would pay £5,400 in undisclosed broker commission over the term. A larger business could pay tens of thousands. We have seen individual claims reach £1,800,000.
At no point in this process were you told the broker was being paid. You were told, in most cases, that you were getting the best available rate which, by definition, you were not.
What Did the Brokers That Did Not Sign the Code Do Instead?
Many of them carried on exactly as before.
The voluntary nature of the Code meant there was no penalty for ignoring it. Brokers who chose not to sign faced no regulatory sanction, no reputational consequence and no legal obligation to change their practices. The energy market remained, in the words of the regulator, largely unregulated.
In October 2025, the Government acknowledged this failure and announced that Ofgem would become the statutory regulator for energy brokers, a decision that had been called for by consumer advocates, business groups and claims specialists including Business Energy Claims for many years.
But statutory regulation is still in the design phase. Ofgem is expected to conduct its market survey through 2026, with broker registration opening around 2027 and full enforcement beginning in 2028. Until then, the market remains largely as it was.
How to Check Whether Your Broker Signed the Code
The list of TPI Code signatories is publicly available through the RECCo portal. As of January 2026, 52 companies appeared on it.
To check whether your broker was among them, you would need to know the full registered name of the firm that arranged your contract which may differ from the trading name you are familiar with. Many brokers operate under multiple brand names, which can make verification more difficult.
If your broker is not on the list, that does not automatically mean your contract was mis-sold. But it does mean you should look more closely at how the deal was arranged, whether commission was disclosed and whether the rate you were given was genuinely competitive.
Signs Your Broker May Not Have Been Acting in Your Best Interests
Beyond the Code, there are practical warning signs that a broker was not operating transparently when they arranged your contract. These include:
- No discussion of fees or commission.
If your broker never explained how they were being paid or told you their services were “free” that is a significant red flag. No broker works for free. If their fee was not discussed with you, it was almost certainly hidden in your unit rate. - Pressure to sign quickly.
High-pressure sales tactics “this price expires today”, “you need to decide now” are a common feature of mis-selling. They are designed to prevent you from shopping around or asking questions about the terms. - No comparison of multiple suppliers.
A broker acting in your best interests would show you options. If you were presented with a single deal and urged to accept it, the broker may have been steering you towards the contract that paid them the most, not the one that cost you the least. - Automatic renewals you were not informed about.
Many businesses have found themselves locked into unfavourable renewed contracts they did not knowingly agree to, often at inflated rates. - Multi-year contracts with high exit penalties.
Long contract terms amplify the commission a broker earns over time. If you were pushed into a five-year deal without a clear explanation of exit costs, that is worth examining closely.
What Can You Do About It?
If any of the above sounds familiar, you may be entitled to claim compensation for hidden commission or mis-selling. The fact that your contract has ended does not necessarily prevent you from bringing a claim, provided you act within the relevant legal limitation period.
At Business Energy Claims, we offer a free, no-obligation review of your energy contracts. Our team includes specialists who understand exactly how the market operates, alongside our panel law firm who know how to build a successful case.
We work on a no-win, no-fee basis.
The question is not really whether the broker industry has a transparency problem. The 2% figure answers that plainly enough. The question is whether your business was among those that paid the price for it and whether you are going to do something about it.
Find out if you are owed compensation from business energy mis-selling.