Utilities; Pennsylvania Power & Light. (nypl.digitalcollections.510d47d9-b681-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.001.w)
The filed rate doctrine applied by Federal agencies and approved by Federal Courts is where some States get the inspiration for State agencies and State Courts to apply filed insurance rate doctrines.
In Ameren Ill. Co. v. Fed. Energy Reg. Comm'n, ___ F.4th ___, No. 20-1277 Consolidated with Nos. 20-1450, 21-1154 & 21-1254, 2023 WL 363887 (D.C. Cir. Jan. 24, 2023), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered refunds to consumers of electricity from regulated electric utilities which charged more than their filed rates allowed. FERC was affirmed on appeal in this case.
The Court made this point which was crucial to its determination to affirm FERC's refund order in this case: "The Commission has 'authority to order refunds if it finds violations of the filed tariff.'” Ameren Illinois, 2023 WL 363887, at *2 (citation omitted). Practitioners in States in which Federal or State Courts follow a filed insurance rate doctrine, would be well advised to research whether their State Insurance Commissioners, by whatever name (in Florida, the Insurance Commissioner is in the recently more widely recognized Office of Insurance Regulation, currently housed within the Department of Financial Services), have the authority to order refunds if they find violations of the filed tariff. This will almost certainly determine the outcome of many clients' cases.
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