Solar

The solar consumer code is being rewritten for 1 December. The duty to investigate your complaint is one of the things that changed

The New Energy Tech Consumer Code is the thing standing behind an Approved Seller badge on a solar or battery quote. An updated edition takes effect on 1 December 2026, and sellers who do not want to be bound by it can opt out between 19 October and 2 November. The administrator names three changes and says the update strengthens protections for consumers. We read the 2020 and 2026 documents side by side. The clauses a customer actually reads are word for word identical. The change is in the annexure, it is about the administrator’s own duty, and it runs the other way.

30 September 2026 Both editions of the Code, read in full

We wrote in August that the federal battery rebate vets your battery and your installer but not who sold it to you, and that the code covering the seller is optional. This is the follow-up that piece owed you: what the code actually promises when something goes wrong, and what is about to change about it.

What is happening, and the date sellers have to act on

The administrator’s page is clear about the mechanics. The ACCC has authorised an updated version of the NETCC which strengthens protections for consumers when buying new energy tech and clarifies requirements for Approved Sellers. The updated Code will come into effect from 1 December 2026.

Sellers get a choice. All Approved Sellers will be given the opportunity to opt out of the updated Code between 19 October and 2 November (14 days). The page tells sellers that if they opt out, you’ll be resigned from the NETCC program on 30 November 2026 and must stop using the Approved Seller badge and any references to being a Signatory.

That is worth holding onto as a buyer. Between now and December, a badge on a quote means the seller is bound by the 2020 edition. From December it means one of two things: bound by the new edition, or gone from the scheme. There is a fortnight in October where that is being decided and no public list of who chose what.

The three changes the administrator names

Quoting its own summary, the changes are: clarifying what counts as a false or misleading claim, so that The commitment not to make false or misleading claims extends to all statements, not just those made in advertising and promotions; additional quoting disclosures, so that Quotes for bespoke designs or initial contract deliverables must specify any applicable fees and the circumstances in which those fees are refundable; and clearer refund and termination terms, under which Some types of non-refundable fees may be deducted from a refund owed to a customer.

The first is a real widening and it is visible in the document: the 2020 edition has a Part B section headed Advertising and promotion, and the 2026 edition replaces it with one headed Overall Commitments whose clause 3 reaches All of our claims, including those across our marketing, advertisements and promotional material, quotes, agreements and statements. The administrator’s own summary adds that these changes do not alter the fundamental nature of the Code.

The complaints clauses you would read have not changed at all

The Code’s customer-facing complaints obligations sit in Part B. In the 2026 edition they are clauses 54 and 55; in the 2020 edition they are 53 and 54. Beyond the renumbering, the text is identical: the same definition of a complaint, the same aim of a response within 15 business days, the same final response within 25 business days, the same record keeping, and the same escalation clause.

That escalation clause is the one to know, because it is narrower than people assume. If you are dissatisfied, the seller must give you contact details for escalation options including any external dispute resolution (Ombudsman) scheme of which we are a member, the State Consumer Affairs or Fair Trading body and the Administrator.

Read the first limb again: of which we are a member. There is no single ombudsman for solar and battery purchases the way there is for an electricity retailer. If your seller belongs to no scheme, that route does not exist for you, and what the Code guarantees is your state consumer affairs or fair trading body, plus the Code’s own administrator. Six years apart, both editions say exactly that.

What did change, and it is the administrator’s own duty

The Code carries an annexure setting out how it is administered. That is where the complaint you send to the administrator is dealt with, and it is where the wording moved.

September 2020, paragraph A21(b). The Complaints Procedure must provide that if a complaint is made by a Signatory’s Customer, the Administrator will investigate the complaint and, where appropriate, attempt to negotiate an outcome that is fair for both the Signatory and the Customer.

December 2026, paragraph A28(b). It must provide that if a complaint is made by a Signatory’s Customer, the Administrator will investigate the complaint if it is within the Code’s jurisdiction and consent of the Customer has been received. However, the Administrator may decide not to investigate a complaint if it is vexatious or cannot practically be investigated. Where an investigation does proceed, the Administrator will, where appropriate, attempt to negotiate an outcome that is fair to both the Signatory and the Customer or refer the matter to the relevant dispute resolution body.

An unqualified will investigate has become a conditional one, with two gates in front of it and an express discretion behind it. This change is not in the administrator’s list of what is changing.

The fair reading first. Every gate here is defensible and most complaint schemes have them. You cannot investigate a complaint about someone’s dealings without that person’s consent. A jurisdiction limit already existed in practice: the administrator’s own complaints page says the Code was authorised to take effect from 1 February 2023 and so incidents that occurred prior to 1 February 2023 cannot be investigated under the NETCC as they are out of jurisdiction. Excluding vexatious complaints is standard. And the new option to refer a matter to a dispute resolution body could land a consumer somewhere with more power to order a remedy than the administrator has. On that reading the new wording writes down what was already true.

Our view, and it rests on the two texts above. Writing existing practice into a code still changes the code. The 2020 wording gave a customer a sentence to point at that said their complaint would be investigated. The 2026 wording gives them a sentence that says it will be investigated unless the administrator decides otherwise, and adds a route by which the matter is handed on rather than resolved. That may be the right design. It is not obviously a strengthening of protections for consumers, and an update summary that names three changes and omits this one is telling sellers more than it is telling buyers.

Only one side can appeal, in both editions

The same annexure sets out who may challenge an administrator decision. In the 2026 edition the Complaints Procedure must provide that the Signatory may appeal to the Panel to review a decision by the Administrator where the Signatory has been required to take remedial action or has had a sanction imposed in response to a breach. The 2020 edition says the same thing in its own words.

There is no matching sentence for the customer. If the administrator decides your complaint is out of jurisdiction, or declines to investigate, or negotiates an outcome you think is inadequate, the Code gives you no route to the Panel. The seller can appeal; you cannot. That asymmetry is not new and the update does not touch it, which is worth saying plainly in a week when the code is being described as strengthened.

If you have a complaint right now

Three practical things, all from the administrator’s own pages and the current Code.

There is a queue. The complaints page carries a notice: We are currently seeing an increase in complaints, resulting in longer than usual response times. New complaint cases may be in the queue for up to 8 weeks before an investigation commences. Eight weeks before it starts, not before it finishes.

There is a date limit. Incidents before 1 February 2023 are out of jurisdiction, and the administrator says date of incident means things like the date the contract was accepted or the date of the non-compliant sales activity.

Go to the seller first, in writing. The Code gives you a 15 business day aim for a response and 25 business days for a final one, and the administrator asks that you have tried to resolve it directly before lodging. Those two deadlines are the most useful thing the Code gives you, and they are unchanged in the new edition.

One small thing we noticed in the document

The September 2020 edition, which is still the operative Code until December and is the file the administrator links today, opens on an unfilled template: the first page carries [Year], [Document title] and [DOCUMENT SUBTITLE] where a cover should be. It has stood that way through the entire period the code has been authorised. The December 2026 edition has a proper cover. It changes nothing about the obligations, and it is the kind of detail that tells you how closely the governing document of a consumer protection scheme gets read.

Dates worth writing down

19 October to 2 November 2026: the 14 day window in which Approved Sellers may opt out of the updated Code.
30 November 2026: sellers who opt out are resigned from the program.
1 December 2026: the updated Code takes effect.

We will check the approved seller directory before and after that window and report whether the number moved.

Sources

New Energy Tech Consumer Code, New Energy Tech Consumer Code, December 2026 (pdf, 37 pages, downloaded and read 30 September 2026): clause 3 on false and misleading claims and its coverage of all claims across marketing, advertisements, promotional material, quotes, agreements and statements; clauses 54 and 55 on complaints, including the 15 and 25 business day periods and the escalation clause quoted above; annexure paragraph A28 on the Complaints Procedure, including the jurisdiction and consent conditions, the discretion not to investigate a vexatious or impractical complaint, the referral option and the signatory appeal right; and annexure paragraph A29 on the Panel's functions.
New Energy Tech Consumer Code, New Energy Tech Consumer Code, September 2020 (pdf, 29 pages, downloaded and read 29 August and re-read 30 September 2026): the Part B section headed Advertising and promotion; clauses 53 and 54 on complaints, which we compared line by line against the 2026 clauses 54 and 55; annexure paragraph A21(b) on the duty to investigate a customer complaint, quoted above; paragraph A21(d) on the signatory's right to ask the Panel to review; and the unfilled cover-page placeholders.
New Energy Tech Consumer Code, Moving to an updated Code (read 30 September 2026): that the ACCC has authorised an updated version of the Code; the 1 December 2026 effective date; the 19 October to 2 November opt-out window and its 14 day length; that sellers who opt out are resigned on 30 November 2026 and must stop using the badge; the three named changes, quoted; and the statement that the changes do not alter the fundamental nature of the Code.
New Energy Tech Consumer Code, Make a complaint (read 30 September 2026): the notice that new complaint cases may be in the queue for up to 8 weeks before an investigation commences; that the Code was authorised to take effect from 1 February 2023 and that incidents before that date are out of jurisdiction; what date of incident means; and the request that consumers try to resolve the matter with the seller first.

Methodology. Both editions of the Code were downloaded and converted to text, and the complaints and annexure provisions were compared clause by clause rather than summarised from the administrator’s page. Every quotation is verbatim from the document or page cited beside it. The finding that the Part B complaints clauses are unchanged is a comparison of the two texts, not a claim by anyone. We could not check the ACCC authorisation at source. The statement that the ACCC has authorised the updated Code is the administrator’s, and accc.gov.au refused our requests entirely, including through a real browser and on its own home page, so we have not read the determination and cannot tell you its terms or its expiry. That is a gap in this article and we have named it rather than passing the administrator’s sentence off as verified. We have not sought comment from the administrator, the Clean Energy Council or the ACCC. No seller is named anywhere on this page, nothing here reports the conduct of any business or person, and the section labelled as our view is argument from the quoted text rather than a finding.

See something wrong? Request a correction and we will check it against the sources above and log the outcome here.