This bill aims to amend the Code of West Virginia by introducing a new section, 46A-6-111, which establishes limitations on the billing practices of Internet and telecommunications providers when they fail to deliver service to subscribed customers for five or more consecutive days (120 hours). Under this new provision, service providers are required to automatically credit customers' accounts for the duration of the service interruption, ensuring that customers are not charged for services they did not receive. The bill acknowledges that while service failures may occur due to factors beyond the provider's control, it seeks to address the inherent unfairness in the current relationship between providers and consumers, where customers may be obligated to pay for extended periods of non-service.

Additionally, the bill designates the Attorney General as the authority responsible for enforcing these provisions and allows for civil penalties against providers who violate the credit requirements. Affected subscribers are also granted the right to take legal action to recover damages not covered by the Attorney General's enforcement. Furthermore, Internet service providers are mandated to report monthly data on the number of customers receiving credits and the total dollar amount of credits issued, as well as details on outages lasting 120 hours or more, with the first report due by the 10th of the month following the outages.

Statutes affected:
Introduced Version: 46A-6-111