Opinion ID: 76568
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Doctrine Generally

Text: 20 The filed rate doctrine (also known as the filed tariff doctrine) forbids a regulated entity to charge rates for its services other than those properly filed with the appropriate federal regulatory authority. Arkansas Louisiana Gas Co. v. Hall, 453 U.S. 571, 577, 101 S.Ct. 2925, 2930, 69 L.Ed.2d 856 (1981). As it applies in the telecommunications industry, the filed rate doctrine dictates that the rates a carrier charges its customers, once filed with and approved by the FCC, become the law and exclusively govern the rights and liabilities of the carrier to the customer: 21 Not only is a carrier forbidden from charging rates other than as set out in its filed tariff, but customers are also charged with notice of the terms and rates set out in that filed tariff and may not bring an action against a carrier that would invalidate, alter or add to the terms of the filed tariff. 22 Evanns v. AT&T Corp., 229 F.3d 837, 840 (9th Cir.2000) (internal footnotes omitted). 23 Therefore, causes of action in which the plaintiff attempts to challenge the terms of a filed tariff are barred by the filed rate doctrine. See, e.g., id. at 840; Marcus, 138 F.3d at 58-59. A more difficult question is presented, however, when the plaintiff's claims — at least on their face — do not attempt to challenge a filed rate and thus do not appear to implicate the parties' rights and liabilities under that rate. Hill, for example, argues that her remaining claims do not directly challenge BellSouth's filed FUSF, but instead challenge BellSouth's representation of the FUSF to its customers. We begin by examining related precedents from two other circuits. 24