Section 2884.2 Of Article 2. Customer And Subscriber Services From California Public Utilities Code >> Division 1. >> Part 2. >> Chapter 10. >> Article 2.
2884.2
. (a) Except as specified in subdivision (b), the billing and
collection practices of a telephone corporation for services
rendered to or for an information service that contains harmful
matter, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 313 of the Penal
Code, are not subject to the jurisdiction and control of the
commission, notwithstanding Section 2884, but are a matter for
contractual arrangement between the telephone corporation and the
information provider.
(b) Nothing in subdivision (a) affects the commission's
jurisdiction over billing and collection for any other information
service.
(c) The commission may, on complaint or on its own motion, after a
hearing, find and determine that circumstances including, but not
limited to, anticompetitive results, require the exercise of
jurisdiction and control by it over those matters removed from its
jurisdiction and control by subdivision (a), and may then exercise
that jurisdiction and control.
(d) Subdivision (a) applies only to that class of
information-access telephone service furnished within or between
service areas, as defined in Section 230.3, through the use of either
a "976" prefix or a "900" access code telephone number, and applies
only to billing and collection services in that class of service.
(e) The commission may investigate and consider, for purposes of
establishing telephone rates, revenues and expenses related to any
billing or collection services rendered by a telephone corporation to
or for an information provider.
(f) A telephone corporation shall, before refusing to provide
billing and collection services for any information service, give the
information provider of that service and the commission not less
than 30 days' advance notice.
(g) If a telephone corporation elects to enter into a contractual
arrangement to provide billing and collection services to an
information provider, the telephone corporation shall provide those
services to the information provider under the same terms,
conditions, and rates that the service is offered to all other
information providers contracting for the services. The telephone
corporation shall provide copies of the contracts to the commission
and, on request, to any other interested party.
(h) Notwithstanding Section 17024 of the Business and Professions
Code, billing and collection services described in subdivision (a)
are services subject to Part 2 (commencing with Section 16600) of
Division 7 of that code. A person or firm claiming a violation of
Section 17045 of that code, with respect to those services, may
proceed in accordance with Article 4 (commencing with Section 17070)
of Chapter 4 of Part 2 of Division 7 of that code, or pursue any
other remedy available under law.