Wash. UTC Staff Finds Lumen Wrongly Disconnected Customers in Pandemic
Washington Utilities and Transportation staff recommended Lumen pay $923,000 for improperly disconnecting customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. A staff probe found the company violated an April 2020 proclamation by Gov. Jay Inslee (D) by discontinuing service to 923 customers for…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
nonpayment, the UTC said Wednesday. Lumen claimed 743 disconnections didn’t violate the proclamation because the company suspended rather than canceled accounts, but UTC staff says that still violates the governor’s intention, the agency said. The UTC set a prehearing conference for May 23 to establish a schedule for reviewing the complaint. A Lumen spokesperson said the carrier's “actions throughout the pandemic demonstrate our good faith attempts to comply with the various moratoriums throughout Washington state and the country, and the vast majority of disconnections were prevented through these efforts.”