Houston Chronicle by Rachel Kersey 2/21/2022
The city alleges that the companies violated the 2005 Texas Video Service Providers Act, according to a public notice published last week.
“The city’s desired outcome in pursuing the litigation is to recover from the VSPs damages owed to the city for failure to pay franchise fees and obtain an order requiring the VSPs to pay the franchise fees going forward,” the public notice stated.
This is not a nationwide law, City Attorney Sharae Reed said. It is Texas specific, and to her knowledge, Netflix, Hulu and Disney are not paying the franchise fees to any cities in Texas.
“I’m not privileged to say what other cities are doing, but I am aware of some other cities who are in a class action lawsuit,” Reed said. “It’s each city filing their own individual lawsuits, and then we’re coming together.”
More:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/Beaumont-to-sue-Netflix-Hulu-and-Disney-16935993.php
