A lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman alleges that Time Warner Cable, now known as Spectrum following a merger with Charter Communications, deliberately mislead customers about internet speeds they could expect from the service.
According to Polygon, Spectrum falsely advertised the internet speeds customers could expect while paying for the 300, 200, 100, and 50 Mbps plans, all while leasing out hardware that couldn't actually handle those promised speeds.
But what’s especially damning is that the lawsuit says Spectrum deliberately bottlenecked internet speeds for streaming and online gaming until companies like Netflix and Riot agreed to pay extra for "access to Spectrum customers".
The 87-page document outlining the allegations includes data gathered by Riot showing that Spectrum subscribers in New York experienced greater latency while playing League of Legends than players using other New York-based ISPs between September 2013 and August 2015.
Spectrum didn’t agree to connect the necessary ports and offer the “interruption and lag-free gaming experience” advertised to its customers until Riot agreed to pay for access that August, after which service improved.
All of that spirals into larger claims made by Schneiderman about how Spectrum knowingly advertised connection speeds that it did not and could not actually deliver. Spectrum subscribers typically receive between 15 percent and 58 percent of the speed actually promised over a wireless connection.
The suit itself was filed at the beginning of February seeking damages for affected Spectrum subscribers and implores Spectrum to produce records of and "disgorge" all money generated from both the fraudulent and illegal practices alleged within the complaint.
For more on the legal complaint lodged earlier this month, be sure to read both Polygon's full breakdown of the multiple claims and also Schneiderman's own comprehensive summary of the document.
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