PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland lawyer has organized a class action lawsuit against AT&T over a billing surcharge.
AT&T charged its Portland customers in their monthly bills for the city's Clean Energy Fund surcharge, as Willamette Week and the Oregonian have reported.
The tax, which began Jan. 1, 2019, applies to large retailers with gross income from retail sales of $1 billion or more in the US and $500,000 in the City of Portland.
It doesn't apply to co-ops, credit unions, health services, certain groceries and medicine, as well as utilities.
Cell phone companies are included as "utilities," so AT&T shouldn't have been levying the surcharge in the first place.
According to the Oregonian, AT&T has started reimbursing its customers who were unfairly billed.
Michael Fuller, a Portland lawyer, is heading up the class action lawsuit. He says he has several dozen Oregon AT&T customers who have filed to collect their $200 claims from AT&T.
