August 5, 2022

Wisconsin Settles with Frontier Over Slow Internet Speeds

Lori Kalani, Bernard Nash

Cozen O'Connor

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Cozen O'Connor

Wisconsin AG Josh Kaul and the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection reached a settlement with internet service provider Frontier Communications Corporation and related entities (collectively, “Frontier”) to resolve allegations that Frontier violated the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, Unfair Billing Law, Unfair Trade Practices Law, and Telecommunications Law by misrepresenting internet speeds and failing to deliver promised high-speed internet to Wisconsin customers.
As previously reported, Wisconsin joined a lawsuit brought by the FTC, California DAs, and five state AGs in a California federal court, alleging that Frontier advertised and sold different plans of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) Internet service, tiered on the basis of download speed, but failed to actually provide consumers with the speeds they purchased, and continued to provide slower service despite consumer complaints, among other things. The federal court dismissed the claims brought by Wisconsin and other states on jurisdictional grounds, without prejudice, and the FTC and California DAs reached a settlement with Frontier.
The injunctive terms of the Assurance of Voluntary Compliance mirror the injunctive terms agreed to with the FTC and California DAs. Frontier will also pay $90,000 to the state and commit to investing $15 million to improve its Wisconsin infrastructure.

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