The California Public Utilities Commission has fined Southern California Edison, a major power supplier in the state, 146 million dollars for falsifying customer satisfaction surveys, officials said Friday.
The commission's unanimous decision, which was announced late Thursday, was in response to Edison's appeal of an administrative law judge's original 200-million-dollar penalty in last year.
Meanwhile, the commission also ordered Edison to refund nearly 81 million dollars to customers. Customers paid that amount over several years in their utility bills for performance bonuses, as the utility company could collect extra money if customer surveys showed it was performing well.
Southern California Edison, a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Edison International, admitted in 2004 that its employees had falsified customer satisfaction data in the surveys from 1997 to 2003. The company said it had taken measures to prevent such abuses from happening again.
Source:Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article