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Class action lawsuit filed against Cable One

By Doug Walker – bio | email

BILOXI, MS (WLOX) – Attorney Stephen Mullins says he’s suing Cable One on behalf of thousands of South Mississippians who use a cable box required to receive dozens of additional channels.  

Mullins lawsuit alleges Cable One is violating anti-trust law by forcing customers to rent the box each month.

“You’re paying a flat fee for all these channels that you’re getting, so why should you have to pay additional money for a box to get the services of the station that you’re already paying for?” 

In court papers, Cable One has denied that, saying customers do have a choice.  Mullins maintains there is no real choice.  He says Cable One tells customers who want more channels, they must rent the box. 

“We’ve recently, I think a week or so ago, had people call in just to see what their response was and they were told specifically they had to have a box,” Mullins said.  “They say in this lawsuit that is not what they are doing, but we have dozens and dozens and dozens of customers that are telling us otherwise.”

The lawsuit also alleges because customers can’t buy cable boxes outright from Cable One or any other source, the company has a monopoly that harms customers.

Mullins also says the cable boxes are out of date.  

“My problem with this is that essentially this is a 1980s technology. A lot of these boxes look like they’ve been around since the 80s, that they are still using and charging people for solely for profit.”

Attempts to contact local Cable One officials for comment on this lawsuit have been unsuccessful. However, in court papers filed by the cable giant asking for the case to be dismissed, Cable One denies any wrong doing.

No court date has been set at this time on either the actual lawsuit, or the request by Cable One to drop the case.

Copyright 2011 WLOX. All rights reserved.

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