Posted by Justin Trigg.
Northern California homeowners have filed a lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric Co. for failing to sufficiently protect power lines before the region’s deadly wildfires. The homeowners Wayne and Jennifer Harvell argue, “[the] drought-like conditions over the summer put fire dangers ‘at an extraordinarily high level’, the homeowners are claiming PG&E failed to trim and remove vegetation within close proximity of power lines.” The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection are actively “investigating the power lines and equipment as a possible cause of the fires that have killed at least 41 people and destroyed 6,000 homes.”
If the state, fire investigators determine the utility’s equipment as a possible cause, then the California Public Utilities Commission, who regulates PG&E, investigates the issue. In recent years, PG&E has been fined “$8.3 million for failing to maintain a power line that sparked a massive blaze in Northern California that destroyed 549 homes and killed two people” and “$1.6 billion for [a] 2010 natural gas explosion in the San Francisco Bay Area city of San Bruno that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes”. Moreover, PG&E has reported to state regulators of several accounts of damages to its equipment. However, the report failed to acknowledge whether they might have caused the fire.
In my opinion, because of the evidence of PG&E’s failures to maintain their equipment from causing destruction and damage in recent years, they must increase their efforts to sustain their equipment in order to avoid these tragedies. Meanwhile, California homeowners, who appear to be aware of the danger of vegetation growing close to power lines, must alert the proper authorities to trim and cut down these hazards. With an increased effort from both parties, perhaps the degree of severity from these reoccurring California wildfires can be lessened.
A day following the lawsuit, United States Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris of California wrote the Federal Communications Commission expressing their concern of the federal government’s failure, “to adopt rules that would require wireless carriers to more precisely target neighborhoods with orders to evacuate”. This regulation would certainly benefit the residents of neighborhoods in imminent risk, while evading alerting residents, who are in safe areas. The Senators argue, “These emergency services are caught in a bind between notifying individuals in imminent danger and risking mass panic”.
Justin is an accounting and finance major at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, Class of 2020.
Source: http://news.findlaw.com/apnews/b98b3394040d470aa6db2afbdb2ea4dd
Posted by Randy Gomez.
In Business Law class, I learned about business ethics and how an entity should behave as a good citizen. In this article that I found online, it explains how the Federal Communications Commission fined AT&T 100 million dollars for slowing down data speeds to some customers. According to the FCC, AT&T violated a transparency rule by misleading customers saying that their plans were unlimited, when there was a maximum speed that customers would receive. AT&T is accused of not sufficiently informing its subscribers. The FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said “consumers deserve to get what they paid for,” and that, “[b]roadband providers must be upfront and transparent about the services they provide.”
It seems that the corporation was trying to maximize their short-term profits, by not being clear enough about the services provided to the consumer. As it usually happens when a corporation acts unethically to increase their profits, AT&T hurt their profits and now is receiving bad publicity. This is a great example of why companies have to take in consideration moral and ethical principles toward their decisions, instead of just trying to maximize profits.
Randy is a business administration major with a concentration in finance at Montclair State University, Class of 2017.
Posted by Abier Mustafa.
Cell phone Company, AT&T, has agreed to pay back $105 million in what is being called ”the largest cramming settlement in history.” AT&T has been adding unauthorized charges to tens of thousands of customers’ monthly bills. The charges are usually for the amount of $9.99 per month, coming from third-party services, including trivia, horoscopes, and love tips. ”AT&T is accused of keeping at least 35% of the fees, as well as obscuring the charges on bills and preventing customers from securing full refunds.”
There have been previous lawsuits against other cell phone providers besides AT&T. For example, the Federal Trade Commission has filed a similar lawsuit against T-Mobile in the past also due to unethical charges to customers. “For too long, consumers have been charged on their phone bills for things they did not buy,” Wheeler, the Federal Communications Commission chairman, said- “It’s estimated that 20 million consumers this year are caught in this kind of trap, costing hundreds of millions of dollars.”
AT&T has released a statement saying that they have provided customers with “Premium Short Messaging Services” in the past. However, they have discontinued third-party billing. To resolve all claims, $80 million of the settlement has been set aside for customer refunds, along with $25 million in penalties due to regulators.
So if you’re an AT&T customer and have been wrongfully charged, you may be eligible for a refund!
Abier is a finance major at Montclair State University, Class of 2016.