Comcast Is Basically Just A Lawsuit Factory At This Point

Maybe Comcast ripping you off is the great uniting force we all need in 2019.

Believe it or not, a lot of people still pay for cable. Some of them even have landline phones. Who knew, right? And when you want to arrange your schedule around what TV shows you’d like to watch, or pay extra for long distance calls, Comcast is there for you!

But Comcast isn’t just for fans of 19th Century technologies and regularly scheduled programming. It also gives a lot of lawyers something to do. Suing Comcast is almost turning into its own practice area.

A few months ago, Comcast settled a lawsuit filed by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. Comcast was accused of violating Massachusetts consumer protection laws by improperly disclosing fees that increased bills some 40 percent above the contract price. Comcast was also allegedly charging customers early termination fees of up to $240. More than 20,000 Bay Staters will be getting a refund or debt forgiveness.

Not wanting to miss out on the action, outgoing Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson filed a similar lawsuit in December against Comcast and its subsidiary Xfinity (which is basically just another name Comcast uses to try to prevent people from knowing their service provider is Comcast). Comcast stands accused of misrepresenting how much cable television packages actually cost, charging Minnesotans for products they didn’t order, and not sending the prepaid Visa cards customers were promised as a reward for getting cable.

Washington State, the original thorn in Comcast’s side, just wrapped up its consumer protection trial against Comcast. This action was filed more than two years ago by Washington AG Bob Ferguson. Washington is asking for $88 million in restitution to be distributed to consumers, $83 million in civil penalties, and attorneys’ fees. The Washington suit centers around allegations that Comcast foisted expensive yet impotent service plans on customers without their consent.

If government work isn’t your thing, no worries, there are also plenty of private practitioners in the suing Comcast game. In a prominent and interesting example, the CEO of Entertainment Studios — owner of such fan favorites as the Weather Channel — sued Comcast for discrimination. You see, the African American CEO of Entertainment Studios, Byron Allen, thinks that discrimination has something to do with why Comcast refused to make a reasonable offer to carry his company’s channels. Allen’s claim against Comcast is for $20 billion, and a panel of Ninth Circuit judges allowed the suit to go forward in November. Comcast’s request for a rehearing before the full panel of Ninth Circuit judges was denied in February. Comcast is reviewing its options.

In a rare instance of being on the right side of history, even President Trump is on the bandwagon against Comcast. Comcast has been a regular Trump punching bag, and on November 12, one of his signature tweets included the creatively capitalized phrase, “Comcast routinely violates Antitrust Laws.” The DOJ does indeed have an antitrust probe open against Comcast, although the agency insists that the probe was launched due to evidence, not the Commander in Chief’s tweets.

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I’m sure Trump’s hatred of Comcast has nothing to do with the fact that Russian billionaire (and Javanka acquaintance) Roman Abramovich recently sued Comcast over a botched installation job at his Colorado mansion. Look, sometimes it takes a Russian oligarch to get things done. Don’t try to tell me you never fantasized about having the means to sue Comcast.

Of course, Comcast isn’t taking all of this very well. It seems it’s lashing out at Tennessee, which it’s suing for an alleged $17.1 million tax overcharge. Sorry, Tennessee.

Comcast is a huge company, and it’s not uncommon for huge companies to be involved in a lot of lawsuits. But this is getting ridiculous.

Maybe Comcast ripping you off is the great uniting force we all need in 2019. I don’t know much else that the attorneys general of three blue states, a powerful African American business magnate, President Trump, a Russian oligarch/football enthusiast, and the home of the Country Music Hall of Fame all have in common.


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Jonathan Wolf is a litigation associate at a midsize, full-service Minnesota firm. He also teaches as an adjunct writing professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, has written for a wide variety of publications, and makes it both his business and his pleasure to be financially and scientifically literate. Any views he expresses are probably pure gold, but are nonetheless solely his own and should not be attributed to any organization with which he is affiliated. He wouldn’t want to share the credit anyway. He can be reached at jon_wolf@hotmail.com.