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Comcast heads to trial with Washington state over consumer protection dispute
Lawyers from Comcast and the State of Washington met in King County Superior Court Friday debating evidence in a rare consumer protection lawsuit headed for trial.
The case involves a Comcast product called the Service Protection Plan (SPP), a monthly paid service that covers maintenance of in-home wiring for Xfinity TV, internet and voice, and troubleshooting for customer-owned equipment. Washington claims Comcast repeatedly violated the state's Consumer Protection Act (CPA) by signing customers up for the SPP without their consent, misleading them to believe the service was free, and misrepresenting what the service guaranteed.
"Consumers who get signed up for a service over the phone without being told about it are potentially deceived as to whether or not they have that service, even if they get disclosures later," Assistant Attorney General Seann Colgan said during the hearing Friday. "That's really where this comes down under the law."
Colgan also noted that the SPP is a lucrative product for Comcast, claiming sales of the product accounted for $85 million in revenue for the company between 2011 and 2016.
Comcast's attorneys claim that the cases cited by the Attorney General's office were in the extreme minority and the result of a few bad apples who were fired or seriously disciplined.
"When you're dealing with millions of interactions, there will be mistakes," said Comcast attorney Howard Shapiro. "There will be misconduct. Comcast, like any other large entity, is not full of perfect humans who every time, do everything right. But that is not a CPA violation."
Comcast revised its SPP policies in 2017 to be more transparent.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Spamalope on Monday November 12 2018, @03:31AM
The politicians don't know how big the payout to clear comcast of wrongdoing needs to be until they know how much bad publicity they'd get/whether it'd threaten re-election. Until then, comcast won't know whether the graft or lawsuit settlement is cheaper.