American Telephone and Telegraph Company v. Central Office Telephone, Inc. (524 U.S. 214)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 15, 1998 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 524 U.S. 214 · 118 S. Ct. 1956
- Decided
- June 15, 1998
- Term
- October Term 1997
- Vote
- 7–1
- Majority author
- Justice Scalia
- Issue area
- Federalism
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court. Respondent Central Office Telephone, Inc. (COT), a reseller of long-distance communications services, sued petitioner AT&T, a provider of long-distance communications services, under state law for breach of contract and tortious interference with contract. Petitioner is regulated as a common carrier under the Communications Act of 1984, 48 Stat. 1064, as amended, 47 U. S. C. § 151 et seq. The issue before us is whether the federal filed-tariff requirements of the Communications Act pre-empt respondent's state-law claims. I Respondent purchases “bulk” long-distance services— volume-discounted services designed for large customers— from long-distance providers, and resells them to smaller customers. Like many other resellers in the telecommunications industry, respondent does not own or operate facilities of its own; it is known as a “switehless reseller,” which is the industry nomenclature for arbitrageur. Of course respondent passes along only a portion of the bulk-purchase discount to its aggregated customers, and retains the remaining discount as profit. Petitioner provides long-distance services and, as a common carrier under the Communications Act, § 153(h), must observe certain substantive requirements imposed by that law. Section 203 of the Act requires that common carriers file “schedules” (also known as “tariffs”)…
Excerpt of a 25,559-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.