Attorney General has sued Comcast

In Charleston West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw has sued Comcast in the circuit courts.

The complaint was filed on July 1, 2009, alleging that Comcast had illegally tied seperate and distinct products together and forcing West Virginia consumers to pay a rental fee for a "cable box", that has a converter box and a cable descrambler. This cable box is required to view Comcast's premium cable services, for which the Comcast consumers already pay a seperate fee. Cable boxes are available on the open market but Comcast refuses to allow their customers to use their own cable boxes when subscribing to their premium services.

The suit alleges that as a result of the boxes being tied together it forced the consumers to pay a higher price then what they could have paid in the open market.

The suit seeks damages on behalf of the West Virginia consumers for the increased cost of cable fees. They are also seeking an injunction against Comcast preventing similar conduct in the future.