Universal Service v. AT&T Corporation

MURPHY, Circuit Judge.

I. Introduction

This multidistrict litigation involves multiple class action lawsuits arising from the billing practices of defendant AT & T Corporation. Each class of plaintiffs challenged the lawfulness of a monthly line-item charge defendant imposed on its customers to recover contributions to the federal Universal Service Fund (“USF”) required by 47 U.S.C. § 254. One subclass of plaintiffs, comprising all residential long-distance customers of AT & T in California, proceeded to trial and was awarded $16,881,000 in damages. The district court remitted the verdict to…