Following Ofgem's conclusion of its investigation into E.ON's sales, E.ON has apologised to customers and confirmed it is working to ensure the failings of the past cannot be repeated.

Between June 2010 and December 2013, Ofgem has identified that E.ON failed to have in place sufficient safeguards to ensure the appropriate selling of energy tariffs. This meant that consumers were potentially not given the right information to make appropriate choices.

The findings make clear there was no organised attempt to mislead or misinform, but E.ON said it "acknowledges the seriousness of its failings".

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In addition to other measures, E.ON has agreed with Ofgem that around 465,000 customers will receive letters highlighting that they may have been sold their energy tariff in a way that did not meet the standards expected by E.ON or the regulator.

Tony Cocker, Chief Executive of E.ON UK, said: "We are really sorry and want to make it absolutely clear that we're putting this right.

"It is completely unacceptable that we may have been unclear with customers about their tariff choices and as a result those customers may not have made the best choices for them.

"There was no organised attempt to mislead, and Ofgem has acknowledged this, but that does not excuse the fact we did not have in place enough rules, checks and oversight.

"We are completely overhauling our sales operations and have already ended face to face sales, outbound residential telephone cold calling, and have revised and improved controls in our telesales operations.

"Whilst we have already put in place a number of changes to meet our customers' and our own expectations, we can and should always be looking to improve our controls and our service.

"We can now start to make amends where mistakes have been made."

(CD/JP)