Kensington Antitrust Advisors Group

In Jeremy Soso v. Cox Enterprises Inc. et al., Cox has become the latest cable T.V. provider to be hit with a proposed class action suit alleging that the company illegally ties the purchase of its premium services to its cable boxes, in violation of the federal antitrust laws.  The complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana alleges that by tying the premium cable services to the cable boxes, Cox forces the consumers to rent cable boxes, instead of purchasing them from the manufacturer, “even though the amount paid in rental fees in less than a year’s time would easily cover the cost of purchasing the box outright.”  The complaint further alleges that Cox engages in this improper conduct “with full knowledge that the members of the class have no choice, but to pay the rental fees charged by Cox.”  This latest complaint is almost identical to a string of actions previously filed against cable providers Comcast and Time Warner.  According to a complaint against Time Warner filed on August 12, 2009, “Time Warner has continued to unlawfully tie its cable services to cable box rentals despite a recent FTC regulation requiring the cable industry to separate the descrambler and other security elements of the cable box into a separate device in order to reduce the monopolistic actions of cable companies.”