Portland Lawyer Collecting Clients for Lawsuit Against AT&T

City officials say AT&T was the only cellular provider to infer it should pass along the Clean Energy Tax to customers.

iPhone. (Negative Space / stock photography)
By Rachel Monahan

A Portland professor filed suit against AT&T on Oct. 11, alleging the company improperly charged Portland customers for a city tax it isn't required to pay.

Michael Fuller, the attorney representing Lewis & Clark College professor Elliott Young, now says he has 22 clients, as well as several others expressing interest, for a possible class action lawsuit, which would also demand AT&T pay a penalty to customers.

"The AT&T customers we are hearing from are furious," Fuller says.

As WW first reported last week, cellphone companies are exempt under the rules for the Portland Clean Energy Fund surcharge the city started collecting Sept. 10.

The same exemption appeared in draft regulations published in April.

"I would note that AT&T alone seems to have made this interpretation," says city Revenue Division director Thomas Lannom. "I'm not aware of any other utilities assessing the tax to customers."

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