Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner James T. Fleming today announced that Southern New England Telephone (SNET) has agreed to publish new suburban yellow pages books by August 2002, in response to an investigation by his office and the Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) and the hundreds of complaints from businesses, most located in Fairfield County, who felt they were misled and kept out of the company's most recent suburban yellow pages publications.

According to the more than 200 complaints that Blumenthal's office received, business owners were told that SNET would be only publishing countywide yellow pages in Fairfield County in 2001-2002. Those businesses claimed that after they placed advertisements in the countywide books, SNET reportedly informed them that it would also be offering several local suburban directories specifically targeted to towns within Fairfield County.

"Small businesses throughout Connecticut have complained that they were unfairly and deceptively deprived of the opportunity to list their business in the smaller, more manageable, suburban directories," Blumenthal said. "The business owners felt they were illegally misled and damaged financially by SNET's misrepresentation that the countywide directories were the only option."

"The agreement mends some of the damage done to these Fairfield County businesses, and we will be monitoring other parts of the state to determine if substantial numbers of consumers have similar complaints," Blumenthal said. "Pushing SNET to publish the new suburban books in August will alleviate some of the financial damage that was done to these businesses. In addition, SNET has agreed to negotiate further over money issues with our office and with the private attorneys representing individuals and businesses who have claims to financial compensation. I anticipate that these negotiations will lead to an amount of refunds for consumers, but the agreement reached today does not foreclose legal action against SNET if we are unable to reach an agreement on these issues."

"I am pleased that the new suburban books will be available in August," Fleming said. "This is an important step for these businesses that sought our help when they found their yellow pages advertising was not reaching their customer bases and impacting their livelihood. We will continue to work on this issue as negotiations continue."

Attorneys Peter M. Nolin and Mary E. Sommer of the law firm Sandak, Friedman, Hennessey, and Greco, LLP, who represent some of the individuals in this case, said: "We look forward to open discussions with the Attorney General's Office and SNET to try to settle the claims relating to the publication of the Fairfield County Yellow Pages book in August 2002."

The Northern Fairfield County Directory, serving greater Danbury, will include Bethel, Brookfield, Danbury, Georgetown, New Fairfield, Newtown, Redding, Ridgefield, and Sherman. The Western Fairfield County Directory, serving greater Stamford, will include Stamford, Greenwich, Darien, and New Canaan. The geographic area of the Fairfield/Westport and Eastern Fairfield local area directories will stay the same.