IV. LEGACY VIOLATED P.U. CODE §2896(a), §451, AND THE FEDERAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT SECTION 226 BY FAILING TO DISLCOSE RATE INFORMATION TO ITS CONSUMERS

P.U. Code §2896(a) states as follows:

The commission shall require telephone corporations to provide customer service to telecommunication customers that includes, but is not limited to, all the following: (a) Sufficient information upon which to make informed choices among telecommunications services and providers. This includes, but is not limited to, information regarding the provider's identity, service options, pricing, and terms and conditions of service. A provider need only provide information to its customers on the services which it offers.

In addition to the complaints of unauthorized charges, 49 complaints concerned unreasonably high collect call rates and lack of rate disclosure. Complainant #6038032 stated in her Declaration that her husband asked a Legacy representative how the recipient of an automated call could know what the rates are and the Legacy representative told him, "[t]here is no way to know. The person who is making the collect call can ask for rates, but the person who gets the call can not ask what the rates are, and has no opportunity to ask what the rates are."³⁵

Legacy President Curtis Brown acknowledged this limitation of Legacy's automated call platform system. In his deposition, Mr. Brown stated that in California, the recipient of a collect call placed via Legacy's automated call platform can not get the rate or price of the collect call. The recipient can only accept or refuse the call.³⁶

CPSD Staff sought to learn the industry standard on disclosure of automated-operator placed collect call rates in California prior to connection, and learned that it is AT&T's policy and practice to announce the caller and if the caller is an inmate, to announce the facility, and to either quote the rate or offer a rate option.³⁷

Legacy's lack of disclosure of rates to consumers is a violation of the P.U. Code §2896(a). Without the disclosure of collect call rates and fees prior to the connection of the collect call, the call recipient will not have sufficient information to make an informed choice as to whether or not to accept the collect call and the associated charges.

Additionally, this lack of disclosure renders the charges unjust and unreasonable and therefore, unlawful. P.U. Code §451 requires that all charges demanded or received by any public utility for any product or commodity or any service rendered or to be rendered shall be just and reasonable. Under §451, every unjust and unreasonable charged demanded or received for such product, commodity or service is unlawful. Price information is specifically identified as an element requiring disclosure under §2896(a); a consumer has the right to know the charges for a collect call before he or she decides whether to accept the call. Legacy's inability to provide this information at the point of sale, and subsequent placement of such charges on the uninformed consumers' phone bills, is therefore unjust and unreasonable.

The lack of rate disclosure also violates the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, Section 226. This section lists the requirements for Providers of Operator Services and specifically requires that providers "...disclose immediately to the consumer, upon request and at no charge to the consumer, a quotation of its rates or charges for the call."³⁸ Legacy's practice of not disclosing collect call rates to consumers plainly violates this section of the Federal Telecommunications Act.

Complainants have good cause to demand rate disclosure, especially since Legacy charges unreasonably high rates for the collect calls they carry. One consumer complained about being charged $66 for 2 collect calls, which together lasted 3 minutes.³⁹ Many consumers complained about exorbitant undisclosed charges ranging from $20 to $40 for each collect call lasting less than 5 minutes. See Appendix 13 for a complete list of complaint descriptions.

³⁵ Appendix 26, Declaration of Complainant #6038032

³⁶ Appendix 12, Deposition of Curtis Brown, p. 189, lines 5-13.

³⁷ Appendix 27, email from AT&T Regulatory Affairs Officer Greta Banks, filed under seal.

³⁸ Appendix 28, Federal Telecommunications Act Section 226 (a)(3)(i).

³⁹ Appendix 29, Declaration of Complainant #7001839.