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The average household energy bill will be £65 a year higher than last year,
after rising at nearly twice the rate of inflation, after the last of the
big six suppliers announced it was raising its tariffs.

By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor

6:02PM GMT 03 Feb 2011

Harry Wallop’s Twitter

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The average joint electricity and gas bill will now be £1,133, up from £1,069
last year. This is an increase of £65, or 6 per cent – compared with a rate
of inflation of 3.7 per cent.

The figures come as EDF became the final one of the big six energy suppliers
to announce it was increasing bills for its 5.5 million customers, adding
7.5 per cent to electricity bills and 6.5 per cent for gas. The jump takes
effect on March 2.

The company has attracted many new customers in recent months thanks to its
winter guarantee, which promised that bills were frozen until March 1. Its
rivals had started raising prices from November.

Experts pointed out that it was depressingly inevitable that EDF was moving
bills up on the first possible day after its freeze had ended.

Audrey Gallacher, head of energy at Consumer Focus, the Government-funded
watchdog, said: “EDF Energy’s customers will be hugely disappointed
that the supplier has chosen to up its prices as soon as possible after its
price freeze ends. Consumers will be further annoyed that this rise is even
higher than that of most other suppliers, particularly given that the firm
already increased electricity prices in October.

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A 127-character tweet about a moldy apartment in Chicago could end up costing @abonnen $50,000.

On May 12th Amanda Bonnen, who has since deleted her Twitter account, responded to a friend with the tweet, “@JessB123You should just come anyway. Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.”

@abonnen only had about 20 followers that directly received the message, but her profile was set to public, and Chicago-based Horizon Group Management discovered the tweet.

Chicago Now reports the company then filed a defamation lawsuit alleging Bonnen, “maliciously and wrongfully published the false and defamatory Tweet on Twitter, thereby allowing the Tweet to be distributed throughout the world.”

Horizon is seeking $50,000 in damages.

If @abonnen’s statement is determined to be false and tweets are considered a legitimate form of publishing, she could be held liable for damages to Horizon’s reputation. But it isn’t quite that simple.