White Label Energy Brands: Tariffs Sold Under Another Company's Name

A white label energy brand sells gas and electricity under a name that is not the name of the company holding the supply licence. The brand on the advert, the app and often the bill belongs to one business; the licence, the regulatory obligations and the legal duty to serve you belong to another. Ofgem, Great Britain's independent energy regulator, licenses suppliers, and its own customer satisfaction statistics spell out the consequence: "subsidiary brands such as white label brands are included in the supply group that is responsible for their customer service operations"¹.

That single sentence answers the question most households arrive with. When you sign up with a white label, the licensed supplier behind it is your actual supplier. The brand is a route to market, a set of tariffs and a customer interface, while the licence holder carries every obligation Ofgem attaches to a supply business: treating customers fairly, financial responsibility, operational capability, billing, information provision and consumer protection³.

This page explains how the arrangement works, what it means for complaints, the price cap and the Ombudsman, and where the model may be heading. For the wider picture of who supplies UK homes, see the guide to UK energy suppliers.

Understanding white label energy providers

A white label energy brand is a tariff or brand sold to households under one company's name while the energy itself is supplied under another company's licence. The brand owner, which might be a supermarket, a retailer or a services company, brings customers, marketing and often a bundled proposition. The licensed supplier behind it brings the licence, the systems, the regulatory obligations and the operational responsibility.

The clearest official description of how these brands are treated comes from Ofgem's consumer satisfaction statistics. Across successive waves of the survey, the rule is the same: "subsidiary brands such as white label brands are included in the supplier group that is responsible for their customer service operations"¹. In other words, the regulator does not treat a white label as a free-standing supplier. It treats it as part of the group that actually answers the phone, issues the bills and carries the licence.

For a household, the practical significance is about accountability. Every obligation that exists in energy supply, from billing accuracy to protections for customers struggling to pay, attaches to the licence holder. The brand chooses the tariffs and the presentation; the licensed supplier carries the consequences. Ofgem's January 2025 satisfaction survey published two indicators of customer satisfaction for seven energy supply groups, not for every brand on the market, because the group, not the brand, is the unit of responsibility¹⁰.

Routes to market for unlicensed brands

Entering the domestic energy market normally means obtaining a supply licence from Ofgem. Tesla Energy Ventures Limited, for example, was granted a licence authorising it to supply electricity to domestic and non-domestic consumers in Great Britain in March 2026, under section 6(1)(d) of the Electricity Act 1989, with the licence formally approved by the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority³. That is the full route: application, licence conditions covering treating customers fairly, financial responsibility, operational capability, billing, information provision and consumer protection, and approval by the Authority³.

A white label brand takes a different path. Instead of seeking its own licence, it partners with a company that already holds one and sells tariffs under its own name through that partner's licence. The brand never becomes a licensee. It does not file the annual declarations a licensee must make, and it does not carry the licence conditions. All Licensed Electricity Suppliers are required to declare their Feed-in Tariff status annually, for instance, and obligations of that kind sit with the licence holder, not the brand in front of it¹¹.

The distinction matters because licensing is the anchor for nearly every consumer protection in the market. Ofgem does not directly get involved with complaints about energy suppliers or network operators and does not investigate individual disputes; its role is supervising licensees⁶. A brand with no licence is, in regulatory terms, a marketing and sales operation. The protections a household relies on, from back-billing limits to standards of conduct, exist because the licensed partner holds a licence and can lose it.

The licensed partner powering each brand

Behind every white label arrangement stands a licensed supplier, and it is that company, not the brand, which holds the legal relationship with the household. The evidence for this comes from how the licensed suppliers themselves are identified in official records. The Smart Export Guarantee supplier list, for example, names "Electricity Plus Supply Limited (trading as Utility Warehouse)" as a mandatory SEG licensee for both the sixth SEG year from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 and the seventh SEG year from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027¹². The pattern is the point: one legal entity, one licence, and a trading name in brackets.

The same structure appears across the obligations that fall on licensees. Under the Feed-in Tariff scheme, the market share contribution of a Licensed Electricity Supplier means the sum of all FIT contributions by all FIT licensees adjusted by that supplier's market share, a calculation that only makes sense for licence holders¹³. Obligated suppliers under the Energy Company Obligation are likewise identified as licensed businesses: Ofgem advises that you can contact any of the obligated energy suppliers to find out how they may be able to help you benefit from the ECO scheme, even if they are not your energy provider¹⁴.

For a household, the licensed partner is the company that:

• holds the supply licence and every condition attached to it³
• is responsible for the customer service operations of its white label brands¹
• carries the scheme obligations, from FIT declarations to ECO delivery¹¹
• answers to Ofgem as the regulated entity⁴

The brand may be the more familiar name. The licence holder is the company the law recognises.

Customer impact of shared operations across brands

Ofgem's satisfaction surveys give the most direct official statement of what a white label arrangement means for customers. The rule has been consistent across survey waves from July 2024 through to the January 2026 findings: "subsidiary brands such as white label brands are included in the supplier group that is responsible for their customer service operations"¹. A household that signs up with a white label brand is, in service terms, a customer of the group behind it.

That grouping has consequences for how performance is measured and published. Ofgem's January 2025 survey published two indicators of customer satisfaction for seven energy supply groups: overall satisfaction with their supplier, and satisfaction with the customer service they have received from their supplier¹⁰. The unit of measurement is the group, because that is where customer service is actually delivered. A brand cannot outperform the operations that serve it.

The same logic runs through Ofgem's expectations of suppliers on debt. Ofgem expects suppliers to demonstrate excellent customer service as part of their strategies for driving down consumer energy debt¹⁵. That expectation falls on the licensed supplier, and a white label customer experiencing payment difficulty will encounter the licensed partner's systems, payment plans and support processes, whatever the branding on the app.

There is also a warning from the world of intermediaries. In one Energy Ombudsman case study, an energy broker confirmed that their agent had given a consumer incorrect information, telling them they would not have to pay separate network charges¹⁶. Intermediaries of any kind, brokers or brands, can misdescribe what a household is buying. The licensed supplier's obligations, and the Ombudsman's jurisdiction, are the backstop when they do.

The hub structure that hosts the brands

White label arrangements exist inside a wider structure Ofgem calls the supplier hub model. Ofgem's call for evidence on future supply market arrangements describes it plainly: "the market was designed with suppliers as the primary interface between energy consumers and the energy system"⁷. The supplier is the hub through which households buy energy, and the role is not incidental. As Ofgem put it, "the role of suppliers as the 'hub' of the market has been entrenched in legal frameworks, licensing arrangements and industry rules"⁷.

The hub role shows up in the data Ofgem relies on. For its energy price cap wholesale costs review, Ofgem received data from 11 suppliers, and proposed to exclude one supplier from its analysis sample¹⁷. The price cap, the mechanism that limits what most households pay, is built on information supplied by licensed businesses, because they are the entities through which the retail market operates.

It also shows up in how new activity reaches households. Ofgem's work on engaging domestic consumers in energy flexibility set out commercial models in which "a retail energy supplier could themselves play the role of supplier and DSRSP, managing their customers flexibility by r[equest]" among other arrangements¹⁸. Whether a household takes part in flexibility, smart metering or an environmental scheme, the supplier is the doorway. Ofgem's green supply guidelines list the schemes that run through suppliers: ECO, Domestic RHI, Non-Domestic RHI, FIT, REGO, RO, CCL, WHD, GER and SEG¹⁹.

For a household thinking about energy independence, the hub model is the central dependence to understand. Solar panels, a battery or a heat pump reduce what you buy, but the supplier relationship remains the interface through which the system sees you.

Household benefits from white label offerings

What a white label arrangement can offer a household is choice of front door, not a different system behind it. The benefits sit in how the brand packages and delivers things: a familiar name, bundled services, and often a customer experience built around the brand rather than around a traditional utility.

The substance behind the packaging comes from what licensed suppliers are obliged and able to do. Ofgem's guidance on getting help with your energy bills points to suppliers making energy-saving improvements to your home and, where a household is struggling, agreeing a payment plan, payment break or reduction, as well as reviewing current payments and debt repayments²⁰. In Northern Ireland, nidirect records suppliers offering advice on more efficient use of energy that could help you to cut your bills, and referring customers who are struggling to pay bills to organisations like Advice NI who offer free, independent debt advice²¹.

Support at local level illustrates the range. 361 Energy offers in-home energy visits to offer practical energy saving solutions, help understanding bills and how to pay less, advice on energy and water debt including debt write-off, energy efficiency funding for home improvements, and free energy saving measures such as LED light bulbs²². Home Energy Scotland provides advice on using energy more efficiently, information on switching energy supplier, referrals for benefit checks, and HES Energycarers who can make home visits and assess eligibility²³. In Wales, Smart Local Energy Systems can be delivered by community energy organisations, social enterprises, public sector bodies, and SMEs²⁴.

A white label brand can be a convenient route to these things, but the obligations sit with the licensed supplier, and a household can also approach any obligated supplier about ECO help even if they are not your energy provider¹⁴. The brand is one door among several.

Identifying your true energy supplier

Knowing who actually supplies you is the practical problem white labels create, and the official machinery is built around the licensed entity rather than the brand. When something goes wrong, Ofgem's guidance is that the Energy Ombudsman provides an independent service, separate from Ofgem, for problems with an energy supplier, an energy broker, a network operator or a heat network supplier, while Ofgem itself does not directly get involved with complaints about energy suppliers or network operators and does not investigate individual disputes⁶. The complaint path runs to the licensed supplier first, then to the Ombudsman.

Some lookups are straightforward. The Energy Ombudsman notes that you can find out who your network provider is via the Energy Networks Association website²⁵. Identifying the licensed supplier behind a brand can take more work, but the clues are on the bill and in official lists, which name the legal entity with the trading name attached, as the SEG list does for Electricity Plus Supply Limited trading as Utility Warehouse¹².

Transparency also comes through publication duties. Suppliers needed to publicly share their performance against smart meter installation targets²⁶, and Ofgem publishes supplier-level satisfaction findings that group white label brands under the supply group responsible for their customer service operations¹. A household that wants to know who stands behind a brand can look at these publications, which are organised by licensed group.

For households that want to dig further, finding out who supplies your energy and complaining about an energy supplier set out the practical steps.

Legal basis for holding a supply licence

The whole arrangement rests on statute. On the gas side, the Gas Act 1986, its subordinate legislation and related statutory instruments, namely licences and industry codes, which together are called the Gas Laws, form a regime of economic regulation for Gas Transporters which Ofgem monitors and enforces⁵. On the electricity side, supply licences are granted under section 6(1)(d) of the Electricity Act 1989, as Tesla Energy Ventures Limited's was, with approval by the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority³.

The Gas Act 1986 also supplies the rule that catches households who never chose a tariff at all. The Act provides: "Where a gas supplier supplies gas to a consumer otherwise than in pursuance of a contract, the supplier shall be deemed to have contracted with the consumer for the supply of gas as from the time ("the relevant time") when he began so to supply gas to the consumer."²⁷ This is the deemed contract, the default legal relationship that exists from the moment supply begins. The Energy Ombudsman's approach to such cases is that where gas is available to a consumer or microbusiness, the supplier has supplied gas to that customer, and one function of the standing charge is to cover the costs of maintaining an available supply²⁷. More on this in the guide to deemed contracts.

The same legal framework governs the hardest questions. Ofgem's call for input on disconnections defines voluntary disconnections as "gas disconnections carried out at the request of the consumer and which are not re[quired]" under health and safety legislation, for which gas distribution networks charge a reasonable and cost reflective charge approved under their connection charging methodology⁵. Involuntary steps are constrained too: all energy suppliers will have to follow the involuntary prepayment meter energy supplier Code of Practice²⁸. These powers belong to the licensed supplier, never to the brand.

Does the supplier hub model still work?

The question Ofgem itself has asked is whether the supplier hub model, the structure that makes white labels possible, still works. Its call for evidence on future supply market arrangements was explicit about "exploring whether the supplier hub model is still fit for purpose or whether we should consider changes as the energy sy[stem evolves]"⁷. The review recognised that the hub role is entrenched in legal frameworks, licensing arrangements and industry rules, which is both the model's strength and the reason reform would be structural⁷.

The pressure on the model comes from several directions. Ofgem's Consumer First Panel was asked to consider who panellists would feel comfortable providing their energy supply if they were on default arrangements, a question that goes to whether the supplier must remain the sole interface²⁹. New forms of supply are already being drawn into similar protections: from 1 April 2025, new legislation requires all Heat Network suppliers to be signed up to Energy Ombudsman in order to remain compliant³⁰, and the Supplier Standards of Conduct and Operator Standards of Conduct apply to suppliers and operators of domestic and non-domestic networks and to alternative models and ownership structures, including bulk supply arrangements, shared ground loop arrays and small communal heating systems³¹.

The contrast with unregulated supply is instructive. The heating oil market does not have the same consumer protections and is not regulated by Ofgem³², and the Competition and Markets Authority published an open letter to domestic heating oil suppliers in September 2026 reminding them that consumer contract terms must be fair and transparent. The hub model, whatever its strains, is what brings a household inside the licensed protections at all.

Whether the model is reformed, the dependence it creates is worth naming. A household buying through any supplier, white label or otherwise, depends on that supplier for billing, for the route to schemes and support, and for the interface with the wider system. The more a household can generate, store and manage its own energy, the thinner that dependence becomes, but the supplier relationship remains the legal spine of the market as it stands today.