In Ireland we did the same thing with similar effects, but it's far from "almost everyone ignored it". The old incumbents have 47% and 49% [0] share in the gas

In Ireland we did the same thing with similar effects, but it's far from "almost everyone ignored it". The old incumbents have 47% and 49% [0] share in the gas and electricity markets respectively, after approximately 20 years. That said, 50% is still a lot of stickiness and consumers do act as if there are large switching costs. The companies act this way, too: they all offer roughly the same price (and same product, of course) in the long term, but give discounts to customers that switch every 1-2 years. [0] (2018) https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2018/0706/976747-commission-for-regulation-of-utilities/ https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2018/0706/976747-commission...