Comcast Tries, Fails To Kill Lawsuit Over Its Hidden, Bogus Fees

Legal Issues

from the I-see-what-you-did-there dept

Cable TV and broadband providers have created an art form out of advertising one price, then charging you something else entirely when your bill actually arrives. They accomplish this via the addition of sneaky below the line fees, which allow them to covertly raise rates while proudly crowing that they’ve keep their base rates the same. Some of these fess are downright obnoxious in how fraudulent they are, like CenturyLink’s “internet cost recovery fee.” Others, like the increasingly common “broadcast TV fee,” simply take a part of the cost of doing business (in this case programming), then bury it below the line to jack up the advertised price.

Comcast, an expert at this particular behavior, was sued for the practice late last year. The lawsuit specifically focused on Comcast’s use of the broadcast TV fee, which has quickly ballooned for Comcast customers from $1.50 per month to $6.50 since introduction, and the “Regional Sports Fee” that has quickly jumped from $1 to $4.50 since 2015. The lawsuit was also was quick to point out that when people call Comcast to complain, the company’s support reps often lie and insist that the fees are somehow government mandated to dodge accountability.

Amusingly, the company responded to the suit by trying to claim that covertly jacking up their advertised rate was just their way of being “transparent” (nothing quite says “transparency” like not knowing what your bill is going to be until after you’ve signed up for service). Comcast subsequently filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that the company’s order submission process doesn’t technically create a binding contract with its customers, and that customers agreed to pay the fees by agreeing to the Comcast “Subscriber Agreement” and “Minimum Term Agreement.”

But US District Court Judge Vince Chhabria recently shot down this argument in a ruling that will keep the suit alive, for now:

“The motion to dismiss the breach of contract claim is denied. The plaintiffs have alleged the existence of a valid contract, which was created when [Comcast customers Dan] Adkins and [Christopher] Robertson submitted their order for Comcast services through Comcast’s website. It is plausible to infer from the complaint that, by clicking “Submit Your Order,” Adkins and Robertson agreed to pay Comcast’s advertised price, plus taxes and government-related fees, in exchange for the services Comcast offered them. It is also plausible to infer from the complaint that Comcast breached its agreements with the plaintiffs when it sent them bills charging them Broadcast TV and/or Regional Sports Fees (alleged to be neither taxes nor government-related fees) in excess of the agreed-upon price, and when it subsequently sought to raise the amount of the fees.”

Judge Chhabria also disputed Comcast’s claim that users technically agree to pay these fees by agreeing to the Comcast subscriber agreement, which only references “permitted fees and cost recovery charges,” and not these additional surcharges Comcast appears to have hallucinated out of whole cloth:

“As to the Minimum Term Agreement, the plaintiffs plausibly allege that they never saw this agreement at the time they submitted their order for services and have never consented to it,” the judge wrote. “Whether the plaintiffs had access to this agreement at the time they submitted their orders for services, or whether they subsequently consented to it, are disputed factual questions more appropriate for summary judgment.”

Comcast’s being additionally disingenuous here in part because as the owner of NBC, it very often is the broadcaster, and often owns the regional sports networks in question. Granted Comcast’s use of covert fees to covertly jack up the cost of service is something that has plagued the broadband and TV sectors in particular for years, though regulators and lawmakers have consistently turned a blind eye to the practice. Similar suits have been filed against Charter Communications, at which point the nation’s other extremely-disliked cable provider tried to claim it was simply providing an amazing consumer benefit.

Filed Under: cable tv, class action, fees, hidden fees, truth in advertising
Companies: comcast