Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced today that the State of Connecticut will be filing a lawsuit against SBC Communications, Inc. and Southern New Telecommunications Corp. (SBC SNET) for selling expensive ads to large countywide or regional directories by falsely telling advertisers they were eliminating all smaller directories.

According to more than 200 complaints that Blumenthal's office received, SBC SNET told businesses that only the more expensive countywide yellow pages book would be published in Fairfield County in 2001-2002. Only after advertisements were placed in the countywide book did SBC SNET inform the businesses that SBC SNET would also be offering several local suburban directories specifically targeted to towns within Fairfield County.

In April, under pressure from Blumenthal's office, SBC SNET agreed to publish new suburban yellow pages books by August 2002, six months ahead of the companies' original schedule, but SBC SNET has refused to provide adequate refunds to businesses.

"SBC SNET's refusal to make proper refunds makes this suit necessary. This company blatantly deceived hundreds of business advertisers – persuading them to buy ads in a yellow pages directory that actually cost them customers," Blumenthal said. "Many small businesses lost customers because their ads were difficult to find in the cumbersome countywide books. Our forceful intervention persuaded them to publish a new book six months early, but now these companies must make refunds to the businesses they deceived.

"SBC SNET falsely induced many businesses to purchase ads in the larger, more expensive countywide and regional directories when they knew that they would soon publish smaller, less expensive local suburban directories in Fairfield County, and throughout the State of Connecticut," Blumenthal said. "Businesses were deceived into expending large sums of money, often their entire advertising budgets for the year, on the larger books. When SBC SNET marketed the smaller directories, these businesses either had no more money to purchase ads or were never contacted by SBC SNET to place ads in the local books."

The lawsuit, to be filed in Hartford Superior Court under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUTPA), is against SBC Communications, Inc. Southern New Telecommunications Corp., Southern New England Telephone Co., and SBC SNET Yellow Pages.