Cox Communications will pay more than $13 million to settle charges that the telecommunications company failed to adequately disclose additional fees to Arizona customers.
The settlement of a lawsuit filed by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes includes a $10 million payment to the state and just over $3 million to be distributed by Cox to current and former customers who signed up for television services between January 2017 and March 2021.
The stateβs lawsuit alleged that Cox deceived Arizonans who purchased television services to enter long-term contracts through promises of a βprice lock guaranteeβ and other fixed-pricing βdeals,β but failed to adequately explain surcharges including a βbroadcast surcharge fee,β a regional sports surcharge and a telephone-related cost-recovery fee.
Cox settled the matter without admitting any wrongdoing, according to a consent decree filed this week.
All eligible Cox customers will be directly contacted by and paid by Cox, so there is no need for consumers to take further action, the attorney general said.
More information about refund eligibility is available online at cox.com/azrefund.
The $30 million from the Cox settlement will go into the Arizona Consumer Protection Revolving Fund, which is used by the AG to fund consumer fraud education, investigation and enforcement.
While the settlement applies to those who signed up starting in 2017, the attorney general alleged in the lawsuit that the practice goes back to 2014, when Cox reserved the ability to regularly raise the bills of price-locked customers through increases in company-imposed fees but failed to adequately explain those fees to Arizona customers.
By disguising price increases as fees, Cox routinely raised the bills of customers who thought they had secured a locked-in price, the attorney general said.
The lawsuit also alleged that Coxβs advertising, billing statements and representations relating to charges associated with its long-distance telephone services deceived Arizonans because Cox falsely implied that the charge was a tax or government fee by listing it alongside government taxes, fees and surcharges.
Cox will distribute the payments required by this settlement as account credits to eligible customers who still have active Cox accounts at the time the credit is issued, and as electronic funds transfers to eligible consumers who no longer have active Cox accounts, the attorney general said.
