CPUC Judge Orders Meetup in MetroPCS Dispute

The California Public Utilities Commission “admonishes” T-Mobile’s MetroPCS and the agency’s own Consumer Protection and Enforcement Division (CPED) for failing to comply with meet-and-confer procedures in a data request dispute, Administrative Law Judge Robert Mason said in a Monday ruling in docket I.22-04-005. The ALJ ordered MetroPCS and CPED to have that meeting within 14 days. Also, MetroPCS must within 40 days supplement responses to a data request despite the company’s objections related to pending litigation, the ALJ said. CPED had found factually and legally deficient a Nov. 4, 2021, MetroPCS response to a Sept. 27, 2021, CPED data request. “But rather than engage in any meet and confer, CPED chose instead to prepare a lengthy Staff Report that detailed the problems with MetroPCS’ response and asked the Commission to open this Order Instituting Investigation (OII) to order MetroPCS to pay a $10 million penalty for violating” CPUC rules, the ALJ said. MetroPCS is also at fault because it didn’t quickly notify CPED of any concerns the company had with the data request soon after receiving it, the ALJ said. Mason rejected MetroPCS’ objection that the carrier can’t answer CPED’s questions while a related federal lawsuit is pending. “MetroPCS fails to cite any law that the pendency of a federal lawsuit is a legitimate ground for refusing to respond to a data request” and it’s “doubtful that there would be such a law since both the federal government” and California “have concurrent jurisdiction to adopt regulations regarding universal service contributions from prepaid wireless providers,” said Mason: The company “failed to cite to any order from the assigned judge in the MetroPCS Litigation, or any other federal law, enjoining the Commission from executing its duty to gather information from entities subject to the Commission’s jurisdiction.” T-Mobile didn't comment by our deadline.