This International Standard specifies the minimum requirements for billing of all consumption-based utility network services to domestic customers. It covers the processes required to produce the bill and to deal with issues that arise after the bill has been sent, as well as the content of the billing document or statement. This International Standard is applicable to utility network services that are unmetered, metered at the point of delivery or metered remotely (e.g. on the supplier’s own premises), and it covers any unmetered or unmeasured charges appearing on the same bill as metered or measured charges, as well as flat rate charges.
NOTE1 Utility network services include electricity supply, water, sanitation, gas supply, district heating and communications.
NOTE2 The requirements given in this International Standard are also applicable to other consumers who are legally entitled to use the service provided by the supplier, except where in order to comply with privacy or data protection requirements, it is necessary for the supplier to obtain the authority of the registered customer before dealing with another consumer on billing matters.
This International Standard does not cover pricing, except for a requirement to provide information to customers. It is only applicable to billing for consumption-based utility network services and it applies to all bills or statements for utility network services where there is an ongoing account relationship between the customer and the supplier, regardless of the payment method used.
NOTE3 This includes bills for metered consumption, bills where a formula is used to estimate consumption (e.g. water bills based on the number of persons per household or the size of the house), or where a flat rate fee is charged regardless of consumption (e.g. telephony or internet bills where the tariff allows unlimited usage). It also applies to prepayment customers, where a bill or account from the supplier is necessary to enable the customer to reconcile the amount paid in advance with the cost of consumption, or where the customer expects to receive a bill based on point of sale or other advertising (e.g. mobile telephony and energy metering) where codes, keys, electronic dongles or electronic cards are used to load and reload the service and to indicate what was purchased.
NOTE4 Services that are not billed [e.g. mobile telephony paid for by pre-purchased SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards that are unmetered] and services that are funded directly by the taxpayer without bills being issued are not covered by this International Standard.
NOTE5 Many of the key principles in this International Standard also apply to all forms of billing, and suppliers are therefore encouraged to adopt the relevant requirements in this International Standard for billing of other services.