The Connecticut Attorney General and Consumer Counsel secured a settlement requiring Charter Communications to adhere to consumer protection commitments as it acquires Cox Communications. The agreement, pending PURA approval, includes pricing transparency, service reliability improvements, a $3 million digital access investment, and compliance with the Connecticut Data Privacy Act. It also maintains a Connecticut workforce and office, and prevents cost pass-through to customers.
The settlement requires Charter to maintain its Stamford office and in-state workforce for five years, invest $3 million in digital access and literacy, ensure billing transparency and limit fees, provide battery-backup options and outage credits, expand video services in former Cox areas, carry local news channels, and submit a CTDPA impact assessment and integration report. It also prohibits passing transaction costs to customers and ensures cooperation with state agencies.
In-house legal teams should review all customer-facing agreements (including service contracts, terms of service, and data processing addendums) for Charter and Cox in Connecticut. Specific clauses to scrutinize include pricing terms (to ensure transparency and prevent hidden fees), service level agreements (to verify reliability and outage reporting standards), data handling provisions (to confirm compliance with the Connecticut Data Privacy Act), and any cost allocation or pass-through language. Changes may be needed to embed pricing transparency mechanisms, update SLAs with measurable reliability metrics, incorporate data privacy compliance certifications, and explicitly prohibit passing merger-related costs to customers. Additionally, agreements involving workforce or local office commitments should be aligned with the settlement's maintenance requirements.
Entity
Charter Communications and Cox Communications
Also known as: Charter Communications, Cox Communications
Industry
TelecommunicationsOfficial Press Release
https://portal.ct.gov/ag/press-releases/2026-press-releases/consumer-protection-commitments-in-proposed-charter-cox-merger-settlement
charter cox occ oag settlement agreement.pdf?rev=a4b40ef158a
https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/ag/press_releases/2026/charter-cox-occ-oag-settlement-agreement.pdf?rev=a4b40ef158a6488d85c753d1f7f9f7ab&hash=29E8870D9ED013BBE4575418ADC56DA8
Connecticut Attorney General Enforcement Page
https://portal.ct.gov/AG/Privacy/Privacy-Resources
"Charter has sought approval from the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to acquire Cox."
"submit a specified Connecticut Data Privacy Act impact assessment"
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong announced a civil investigative demand into MediaLab.AI Inc., owner of the Kik Messenger app, over lax age assurance practices, content moderation, and child safety failures that advocates have dubbed a "predator's paradise." The action follows a July 2025 notice of violation under the Connecticut Data Privacy Act for privacy notice deficiencies and processing sensitive data — including health, biometric, and precise geolocation data — without proper consent, which the company has only partially addressed. The new investigation seeks records related to practices that may constitute unfair or deceptive acts or practices under the CTDPA and the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act. No fine has been imposed to date.
Attorney General William Tong issued a consumer alert warning Connecticut residents about unregulated, offshore decentralized finance (DeFi) cryptocurrency exchanges, naming GMX, Gains Network, dYdX, Aevo, Drift Protocol, Vertex Protocol, and Hyperliquid. The alert highlights risks including bypassing U.S. law via VPNs, predatory leverage up to 250x, misleading synthetic asset products, and lack of KYC protections. No enforcement action or penalty was imposed; at least one Connecticut consumer reportedly lost $200,000 deposited with an unregulated DeFi exchange.
$2.0M
Attorney General Tong and a coalition of four other states and the FTC sued Zillow and Redfin after Zillow paid Redfin $100 million to shut down its multifamily rental advertising business and transfer clients to Zillow. The settlement requires the companies to restore competition, with Redfin rebuilding its apartment advertising business, and pay $2 million to the coalition.
Attorney General William Tong sent a letter to the Connecticut Insurance Department urging rejection of double-digit rate increases sought by Anthem, ConnectiCare, and UnitedHealthcare for individual and small group health insurance plans covering about 220,000 people. The letter argues the rates exceed inflationary measures and criticizes the carriers for failing to control costs and for poor claims system management, particularly ConnectiCare's transition to Molina Healthcare.
$275K
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong announced a $275,000 settlement with TaxAct, an online tax preparation company, over allegations that between January 2018 and December 2022, TaxAct improperly disclosed detailed customer financial information to Meta and Google through third-party tracking technologies without notifying taxpayers. The settlement requires TaxAct to pay $275,000 and implement new third-party tracking compliance measures, including a review committee, written policies, a tag monitoring system, and two independent third-party audits.
$4.0M
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and the Federal Trade Commission announced a $4 million settlement with Manchester City Nissan (Chase Nissan LLC) resolving allegations that the dealership double-charged for 'certified pre-owned' vehicles and collected unauthorized junk fees. The settlement requires payment for consumer redress, prohibits misrepresentations, mandates clear disclosure of the maximum total price, and requires express informed consent for all charges.