OLYMPIA – Lumen, formerly known as CenturyLink, will pay $825,000 in a settlement to 1,100 Washington customers whose landline telephones were shut off in violation of an emergency moratorium on disconnections, the state Attorney General’s office announced Thursday.
The company will pay $707.00 for each unlawful disconnection between March, 2020, and September, 2021. That’s when a ban on such disconnections was in place, under an emergency order by Gov. Jay Inslee.
Customers whose phones were disconnected more than once will receive a payment for each disconnection. Checks are expected to go out by Feb. 10.
In a statement, Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Lumen’s actions caused Washingtonians to lose “a critical lifeline” during the pandemic.