November 9, 2016

Today Hattis Law filed a lawsuit against Charter Communications, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary Time Warner Cable, Inc. to put an end to the cable giant’s massive illegal bait-and-switch scheme of advertising and promising one price but then charging its customers a much higher price in the form of concealed, deceptive, and completely fabricated fees which Charter calls “Broadcast TV and Sports Programming Surcharges.”

View the Complaint against Charter and Time Warner Cable.

By Charter and Time Warner Cable’s own admission these fees are completely made-up fees charged to provide the very channels they have promised are already included in the advertised service package price; yet they do not include the amount of these fees in the advertised price nor in the top-line charge for the service package on customer bills.

To make matters worse, Charter falsely and fraudulently prints on customer bills that the Surcharges are imposed to “recover costs of complying with its governmental obligations.” To customers who question Charter about these Surcharges on their bill, Charter staff likewise lie and tell the customers that the Surcharges are mandatory government-related fees or taxes over which Charter has no control.

Hattis Law has filed this injunctive relief lawsuit on behalf of a California consumer to put an end to Charter / Time Warner Cable’s unlawful actions for the benefit of not only California consumers, but also consumers nationwide. Charter is the second largest cable operator in the U.S., serving 25 million subscribers in 41 states.

Charter has overcharged consumers billions of dollars in the form of the bogus Broadcast TV and Sports Programming Surcharges, and Hattis Law looks forward to prosecuting this case and holding Charter accountable for its wrongful actions.

If you are a Charter Spectrum or Time Warner Cable customer and are upset about their Broadcast TV and Sports Programming Surcharges, we would like to hear about your experience.

If it has been 30 days or less since you started your new contract, you can opt-out of Time Warner Cable’s arbitration clause here.