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CT AG Secures Consumer and Privacy Protections in Charter-Cox Merger

Charter Communications and Cox CommunicationsJanuary 28, 2026Connecticut Attorney General

Summary

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.

Remedy

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.

Compliance ProgramInjunctionCorrective Notice

Contract Impact

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.

Contract Search Terms

pricing transparency clauseservice level agreement (SLA)outage reporting requirementsdigital access investment fundworkforce retention guaranteecost pass-through prohibitiondata processing addendummerger conditionsregulatory approval conditionsconsumer protection commitments

Laws Cited

Violation Types

Entity Details

Entity

Charter Communications and Cox Communications

Also known as: Charter Communications, Cox Communications

Industry

Telecommunications

Official Sources

Source Evidence

Entity Name
"Charter has sought approval from the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to acquire Cox."
Laws Cited
"submit a specified Connecticut Data Privacy Act impact assessment"

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