CenturyLink must pay $226,000 penalty for failing to disclose rate increases, state says
A $226,000 penalty against CenturyLink has been upheld by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission after five of CenturyLink’s telephone companies violated an 8-year-old rate increase agreement.
In a press release sent out Monday, UTC said that CenturyLink is bound by an agreement to disclose all rate changes with UTC when it raises customer rates, but failed to do so.
The company also violated the agreement last year, a UTC news release says.
Five telephone companies violated the agreement according to UTC: Qwest Corporation, CenturyTel of Washington, Inc., CenturyTel of Inter Island, Inc.,CenturyTel of Cowiche, Inc. and United Telephone Company of the Northwest.
UTC first issued the penalty in June over 2,266 violations “representing the total days between when each of the five companies should have notified the UTC and when they actually filed rate changes in response to a staff request, leading to the $226,000 penalty.”
The company was fined $100 per violation, per day.
CenturyLink then filed an application for mitigation after admitting to the violations, but UTC rejected the company’s arguments. CenturyLink cited personnel reductions during the pandemic, including key staff, as their reason for missing notifications when the company filed a petition for review in October.
“The lack of notification hinders the UTC’s ability to regulate in the public interest and intervene when necessary,” UTC said. “Proper notification would have allowed the commission to evaluate the economic circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of those rate increases on customers.”
CenturyLink serves approximately 650,000 customers in Washington and is the largest phone company in the state, UTC noted.
Telecommunications companies, investor-owned electric utilities, natural gas and water companies, garbage-collection haulers, household-goods movers and passenger transportation companies, commercial ferries, pipeline companies, marine pilotage, and a low-level radioactive waste repository are all regulated by the UTC, according to the release.
