Spectrum Cable Deceptive Billing Class Action: How to Join

A class action filed in Kentucky in June 2025 accuses Charter Communications and its Spectrum cable subsidiary of deceptive billing, alleging the company disguises a $28 monthly Broadcast TV Surcharge as an externally mandated fee when it is actually a discretionary charge the company sets and profits from. If you are a current or former Spectrum customer, you can submit a form to join through the plaintiffs’ law firm, though an unresolved arbitration question may affect whether you can participate as part of the class.¹

What the Lawsuit Claims

Plaintiff Richard Wookey, a former television broadcast employee, filed the case on June 4, 2025, in Jefferson County, Kentucky. It centers on a single line item that appears on Spectrum cable bills: the Broadcast TV Surcharge, now $28 a month. Spectrum has described the fee as a “pass-through fee reflecting charges from local broadcast or affiliate TV stations” that is “mandated externally and beyond Spectrum’s control.”² The complaint alleges that framing is false: the surcharge is set by Spectrum, not required by any outside authority, and generates revenue well beyond what the company pays to carry local broadcast signals. Some reporting has described the plaintiffs’ allegations as claiming Spectrum falsely attributes the fee to the Federal Communications Commission.³

Based on an estimated 100,000-plus subscribers, the suit calculates that Spectrum collects roughly $334 million a year through the surcharge alone, while actual retransmission costs paid to local stations are believed to be “much lower.”² The complaint asserts violations of the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act and federal law and seeks both restitution for customers and an injunction against Spectrum continuing to charge the surcharge in its current form.⁴

An amended complaint filed on June 6, 2025, provided what plaintiffs’ attorney Chauncey Hiestand called “a more clear picture of how deceptive this is,” adding, “I think when we get to the bottom of it, it will be shocking.”³ Charter has declined to comment publicly.¹

How to Sign Up

The Winton & Hiestand Law Group, a Louisville firm handling the case, has set up a sign-up page at louisvillelawoffice.com/spectrum where current or former Spectrum customers can submit a form to join. By early June 2025, more than 4,000 people had already done so.¹ The case was filed on behalf of Kentucky consumers, but Hiestand has suggested it could expand to a broader geographic scope.³

Why the Arbitration Clause Matters

Before you sign up, know this. Spectrum’s subscriber agreements include a binding arbitration clause and an explicit class action waiver, with a limited opt-out window for new customers.⁵ If you did not opt out within that window when you signed up for service, Charter can ask the court to send your claim to individual arbitration instead of letting you participate in the class.

That is exactly what Charter has done here. After removing the case to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky on July 2, 2025, the company filed a motion to compel arbitration and stay the proceedings.⁶⁷⁸ If the Kentucky court reaches the same conclusion, the class action structure collapses and affected customers would need to pursue individual arbitration claims.

Where the Case Stands Now

The case is assigned to Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings under case number 3:25-cv-00408. In September 2025, the court issued an order addressing the arbitration motion and an agreed scheduling proposal. Since then, the docket has consisted largely of periodic status reports, with filings in December 2025, February 2026, and June 1, 2026.⁶ The case remains active but procedurally uncertain, with the arbitration question the central unresolved issue.

Is the Broadcast TV Surcharge Actually Required by the Government?

No. The Broadcast TV Surcharge is a company-imposed fee, not a government-mandated tax. Cable providers use it to recoup costs from retransmission consent agreements, which are private negotiations between the cable company and broadcast stations over the right to carry their signals. The FCC permits cable operators to itemize these costs separately on customer bills under rules implementing the 1992 Cable Act, but permission to itemize is not the same as a mandate to charge.⁹

A 2019 Consumer Reports investigation found that cable companies, including Charter, routinely cited this FCC permission as justification for their billing practices while failing to clearly distinguish between government-imposed taxes and their own discretionary fees. In some cases, customer service representatives were found to have inaccurately told customers the fees were “mandated by the government.”⁹

In April 2024, the FCC finalized an “all-in pricing” rule requiring cable and satellite providers to display a single aggregate price that includes fees like the Broadcast TV Surcharge as part of the advertised total, rather than listing them separately in a way that obscures the true cost. The agency acknowledged in the rulemaking that company-imposed fees were “often portrayed by providers in a way that leads consumers to mistakenly believe they are government-imposed taxes.”¹⁰ The rule gave most operators nine months to comply and small operators twelve months.

How the Surcharge Has Climbed

The fee at the center of the case has more than doubled in five years. Spectrum has consistently attributed each increase to rising programming costs from content suppliers, a framing the lawsuit directly challenges.

August 2020: rose from $13.50 to $16.45 per month
June 2021: increased to $17.99, roughly $216 a year
January 2024: jumped from $23.20 to $25.75
By 2025: reached $28 per month

A Spectrum spokesperson said in 2024 that the company had “taken a stand” for a “customer-focused model” but that price hikes were “mainly due to increased programming costs from their suppliers.”¹¹ In 2021, a spokesperson called the fee a direct pass-through: “As a direct result of the growing cost of programming from the TV networks we carry, we are passing through these increased fees to viewers.”¹² The complaint alleges the gap between what Spectrum collects through the surcharge and what it actually pays out to broadcasters is where the alleged deception lives.

1
WDRB. Louisville Man Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Spectrum Claiming Unfair Billing Practices
2
Louisville Courier-Journal. Jefferson County Man Files Lawsuit Against Spectrum for Broadcast TV Fees
3
WAVE 3 News. More People Trying to Join Class Action Lawsuit Against Spectrum
4
Scribd. Spectrum Class Action Lawsuit
5
Spectrum. Residential General Terms and Conditions of Service
6
CourtListener. Wookey v. Charter Communications (DE), Inc.
7
RegMedia. Byrne et al v. Charter Communications Complaint
8
Truth in Advertising. Prices for Cable Television Services From Charter Communications
9
Consumer Reports. What the Fee?! Report
10
Federal Register. All-In Pricing for Cable and Satellite Television Service
11
WXXI News. Spectrum Raising Some Cable and Internet Fees
12
Desert Sun. Charter Spectrum Raise Cable TV Home Phone Prices