Comcast Must Pay $700,000, Cancel 20,000 Debts in Deceptive Advertising Settlement

Comcast must pay $700,000 and cancel the debts of 20,000 Massachusetts customers to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of engaging in deceptive marketing practices. 

The Comcast settlement also resolves claims that the cable TV provider did not adequately disclose the true monthly fees of its products to consumers.

Last week, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced the settlement deal struck between Comcast and consumers. The assurance of discontinuance was filed in Suffolk Superior Court.

According to consumers, Comcast made a company-wide practice of not adequately disclosing the monthly fees for its cable service contracts.

This action allegedly included failing to disclose to customers the fact that Comcast could raise monthly fees at any time during the contracts.

Customers say that this reality contrasted what they were advertised, which was a low monthly rate marketed as being consistent for the duration of a contract.

Many customers argue that Comcast raised the monthly fees beyond what they could afford.

According to Attorney General Healy, this practice “left many [customers] in debt and others with damaged credit.” To remedy this problem, the settlement deal requires that Comcast forgive the debts of 20,000 customers who incurred debts as a result of the company’s allegedly deceptive practices.

Attorney General Healey went on to say that “customers have a right to clear information about the products and services they buy. They encourage the entire cable and telecommunications industry to take a closer look at their advertisements and make sure customers are getting a fair offer.”

Healey argued that Comcast “violated state consumer protection laws by using deceptive advertisements to promote its long-term cable contracts.” According to the customers, they were financially injured by Comcast’s misrepresentations.

Customers in the Comcast fee hike lawsuit alleged that Comcast raised monthly fee to as much as 140 percent of the advertised price.

Comcast customers also say that when they attempted to cancel the contracts, they had to pay early termination fees, which were as much as $240, in the case of canceling long-term contrasts.

These fees were allegedly charged even when the customers did not cancel their services completely and instead downgraded to more affordable packages.

As an example of misrepresented monthly rates, the Comcast lawsuit said that the company advertised that one cable package had a “lock-in” rate of $99 but failed to disclose that there would be additional equipment fees and mandatory monthly fees in addition to the advertised price.

Allegedly, the same advertisements made no mention of the fact that the company reserved the right to increase the fees at will.

To compensate consumers for the injury allegedly cause by Comcast misrepresentations of its products, Comcast will provide refunds to all Massachusetts residents who paid early termination fees after they downgraded their services between January 2015 and March 2016.

The company will also refund early termination fees charged to consumers who had their packages canceled by the company after they were unable to pay the rising fees during this time period.

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The Massachusetts Comcast customers are represented by Assistant Attorneys General Mychii Snape and Shennan Kavanagh of the AG’s Consumer Protection Division.