Comcast Fined $2.3 Million by FCC For 'Negative Option Billing' Practices (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader shares an ArsTechnica report:The FCC announced a $2.3 million fine against Comcast on Tuesday after confirming that the company had been billing customers for products and services they had never ordered. After calling the fine "the largest civil penalty assessed from a cable operator by the FCC," the federal agency's announcement detailed exactly how Comcast bilked customers -- and new company practices that must be put into place as a result. According to the FCC's Office of Media Relations, the agency had received "numerous complaints from consumers" about the issue of "negative option billing" -- meaning, receiving charges for items that the customers had never affirmatively requested. (The FCC reminds readers that in the telecom world, this practice is known as "cramming.") The listed complaints revolve specifically around items related to cable TV service, including "premium channels, set-top boxes, and DVRs."

Comments

They earn that in 16 minutes

[Jason Levine]

Comcast had $19.269 billion in revenues last quarter. (Source) This equates to about $211 million per day or $8.8 million per hour. They'll earn back the $2.3 million fine in about 15 minutes and 42 seconds.

Re:They earn that in 16 minutes

[Anonymous Coward]

Posting as AC because I'm at work.

When looking at this in greater detail its even worse than you pointed out. I make about 50k a year, so lets proportion this out to an equivalent number:

2.3 Million / 19.269 Billion * 50,000 = $5.97

2 Million sounds big, because to the majority of us it *is* big - but to these large companies that's the same as buying a coffee and doughnut at the Tim Horton's! If this were me I wouldn't care one bit, I'd just pay my six bucks and call it a day. Now if they were hit with an equivalent to a $2,500 fine, which is a common amount for us commoners to pay, I'm betting they'd think twice about pulling these kinds of things because they'd be out 963,450,000.00!

Of course in today's world where lobbyists have bribed those in power, a fine like that would never fly.

Re:They earn that in 16 minutes

[Nethemas the Great]

The more important question that should be being asked is "How much did they make from the practice of cramming?" If the answer is "less than what they were fined"--which it almost certainly is--then they have no motivation to alter their practices. This fine is nothing but whitewash to mollify some grumpy petitioners.

Fraud

[Moof123]

Outside of the telecom industry this is called fraud, and should result in jail time for those who are responsible.

Comcast and its ilk own too many congressmen, so they have to pay back a small percentage of the profits if they get caught. Usually no admission of guilt is even needed.

Carry on, business as usual.

Re:2.3M? -- That'll teach them!

[Penguinisto]

True - wish that "M" was a "B", which would damned sure get their attention...

Seriously, when a corporation gets over a certain size (in terms of market cap/cash on hand/etc), they really should jack the fines up by at least an order of magnitude, if only to prevent the 'fines are the cost of doing business' tactic.

Crippling a company that way has a bonus... the CxO suite is no longer praised for jacking value by any means necessary, but instead tarred and feathered (and likely sued into oblivion) by pissed-off shareholders who just saw their investment go to shit overnight.