A. Scope and Purpose

The purpose of these rules is to protect consumers from unauthorized charges on their telephone bills, specifically, charges for non-communications-related products and services. Effective July 1, 2001, such charges are no longer barred by statute. These rules are intended to give consumers control over whether to use their telephone bills to pay for non-communications-related products and services; to ensure that consumers have sufficient information to make informed choices about this service and, if they use it, to verify charges on their bills; and to provide for prompt and effective recourse if they find unauthorized charges or other billing errors related to non-communications charges on their telephone bills.

These rules apply to: (1) any telephone corporation, as defined in Public Utilities Code Section 234, operating in California, whether providing landline or wireless telephone service, that chooses to open its telephone billing service to non-communications-related products and services; (2) any billing agent that presents such charges to a California telephone corporation on behalf of another entity; and (3) any vendor of non-communications-related products or services that bills for those products or services on a California subscriber's telephone bill, whether it makes billing arrangements directly with the California billing telephone company or indirectly through billing agents. Business entities in all three categories must comply with the applicable rules in this Part. These rules apply to billing for residential telephone service, business telephone service, and combined or undifferentiated residential/business telephone service.