Maine Revised Statutes Title 35-A. Public Utilities § 7109. Unlawful telephone charges

1. Unauthorized and duplicative line-item charges prohibited. A telephone utility may not charge a customer for, or include as a separate line-item charge on the customer's bill, any charge unless that charge represents:

A telephone utility may not include in a line-item charge on a customer's bill any element of the telephone utility's costs that is charged for elsewhere on the customer's bill.

2. Description of line-item charges required. A telephone utility shall provide on the customer's bill a brief, clear, nonmisleading, plain language description of each line-item charge included on the bill and the authorized service, tax or fee represented by that line-item charge.

3. Enforcement. In addition to any authority the commission may have pursuant to other law, the commission may impose an administrative penalty upon a telephone utility for violation of this section. The amount of any administrative penalty imposed under this subsection may not exceed $1,000 per violator for violations arising out of the same incident or complaint and must be based on:

The commission shall provide a simple process for a customer of a telephone utility to report to the commission a line-item charge that the customer believes may violate this section.

This subsection is not intended to limit any enforcement action or penalty pursued by the Attorney General for violations of Title 5, chapter 10  1 where applicable.