---
kind: "section"
citation: "47 U.S.C. § 258"
title: "47"
title_heading: "Telecommunications"
number: "258"
heading: "Illegal changes in subscriber carrier selections"
release: "119-102"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/47/258"
units:
  - "Chapter 5 — Wire or Radio Communication"
  - "Subchapter II — Common Carriers"
  - "Part II — Development of Competitive Markets"
---

# §258. Illegal changes in subscriber carrier selections

- (a) **Prohibition—** No [telecommunications carrier](/usc/47/153.md?p=51) shall submit or execute a change in a [subscriber](/usc/47/340.md?p=i-1)’s selection of a provider of [telephone exchange service](/usc/47/153.md?p=54) or [telephone toll service](/usc/47/153.md?p=55) except in accordance with such verification procedures as the Commission shall prescribe. Nothing in this section shall preclude any [State commission](/usc/47/153.md?p=48) from enforcing such procedures with respect to intrastate services.
- (b) **Liability for charges—** Any [telecommunications carrier](/usc/47/153.md?p=51) that violates the verification procedures described in [subsection (a)](#a) and that collects charges for [telephone exchange service](/usc/47/153.md?p=54) or [telephone toll service](/usc/47/153.md?p=55) from a [subscriber](/usc/47/340.md?p=i-1) shall be liable to the [carrier](/usc/47/153.md?p=11) previously selected by the [subscriber](/usc/47/340.md?p=i-1) in an amount equal to all charges paid by such [subscriber](/usc/47/340.md?p=i-1) after such violation, in accordance with such procedures as the Commission may prescribe. The remedies provided by this subsection are in addition to any other remedies available by law.

## Source credit

(June 19, 1934, ch. 652, title II, § 258, as added Pub. L. 104–104, title I, § 101(a), Feb. 8, 1996, 110 Stat. 77.)