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Current as of January 01, 2025 | Updated by Findlaw Staff
(a) This section does not apply to service rendered or commodities furnished:
(1) to the officers, employees, pensioners, and immediate family members of the officers, employees, and pensioners of a public service company;
(2) to the United States, the State, or a local government;
(3) to provide relief in cases of general epidemic, pestilence, flood, or other similar calamity;
(4) in the case of common carriers, to transport:
(i) personnel of another common carrier that reciprocates for personnel of the transporting common carrier;
(ii) hospital patients;
(iii) indigent, destitute, and homeless individuals;
(iv) persons exclusively engaged in charitable work;
(v) residents of federal or State veterans homes, including those about to enter a home or those returning from a home;
(vi) railway mail service employees and baggage agents;
(vii) post office, customs, and immigration inspectors;
(viii) newspaper vendors;
(ix) property for exhibition carried to or from fairs and expositions;
(x) employees of sleeping car companies, express companies, telegraph companies, and telephone companies doing business along the line of the common carrier;
(xi) persons and property incident to or connected with contracts for construction, operation, or maintenance of the plant of the transportation company, to the extent provided in the contracts;
(xii) individuals injured in accidents and physicians, nurses, or other necessary caretakers attending the injured individuals in transit;
(xiii) children under the age of 5 years for no charge;
(xiv) children under 12 years for half fare; or
(xv) persons at free or reduced rates that are otherwise authorized by law;
(5) in the case of common carriers, for the issuance of mileage, excursion, or commuter tickets;
(6) to free steamboat excursion transportation from May through August of each year, from Baltimore City to any place in the State, in exchange for services rendered in advertising the excursion business;
(7) to obtain essential data by a method that uses a limited sample of customers, in connection with a rate structure study conducted under formal proceedings before the Commission;
(8) to telephone lifeline service provided to eligible subscribers under § 8-201 of this article; or
(9) to electricity or gas service provided to eligible limited-income customers through an approved limited-income mechanism under § 4-308 of this title.
(b) For any service rendered or commodity furnished, a public service company may not directly or indirectly, by any means, including special rates, rebates, drawbacks, or refunds:
(1) charge, demand, or receive from a person compensation that is greater or less than from any other person under substantially similar circumstances;
(2) extend a privilege or facility to a person, except those privileges and facilities that are extended uniformly to all persons under substantially similar circumstances;
(3) discriminate against a person, locality, or particular class of service; or
(4) give undue or unreasonable preference to or cause undue or unreasonable prejudice to a person, locality, or particular class of service.
Cite this article: FindLaw.com - Maryland Code, Public Utilities § 4-503 - last updated January 01, 2025 | https://codes.findlaw.com/md/public-utilities/md-code-public-util-sect-4-503/
FindLaw Codes may not reflect the most recent version of the law in your jurisdiction. Please verify the status of the code you are researching with the state legislature before relying on it for your legal needs.
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