Charter Communications, Spectrum Sued in CA Over Internet Speed Promises

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A proposed class action filed in California is attempting to take defendants Charter Communications, Inc. and subsidiary Spectrum Management Holding Company LLC to task for allegedly promising to consumers high internet speeds that the companies knew they could not deliver. The action comes in the wake of a February 2017 lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on behalf of consumers in the state who have long suspected they had been ripped off by the defendants.

Filed by two named plaintiffs, the California lawsuit claims the defendants—formerly Time Warner Cable, Inc.—defrauded and misled consumers by promising to deliver internet service at unobtainable speeds through a variety of subscription plans. Many consumers, the case alleges, were leased older-generation modems and wireless routers simply incapable of supporting the promised Internet speeds.

Beyond consumer hardware, the lawsuit takes issue with the defendants’ allegedly inadequate infrastructure and their failure to have one in place that could have given consumers what they truly paid for.

“Indeed, both defendants’ ‘WiFi’ and wired internet speeds consistently, if not always, performed far below the advertised speeds,” the case claims. “Instead of admitting their structural inability to fulfill their promises, however, [the defendants] continued to advertise that their wireless internet services supported the same speeds as wired connections that are not hampered by modem and wireless router capabilities and network limitations.”