---
kind: "section"
citation: "47 U.S.C. § 258"
title: "47"
title_heading: "Telecommunications"
number: "258"
heading: "Illegal changes in subscriber carrier selections"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/47/258"
units:
  - "Chapter 5 — Wire or Radio Communication"
  - "Subchapter II — Common Carriers"
  - "Part II — Development of Competitive Markets"
---

# §258. Illegal changes in subscriber carrier selections

- (a) **Prohibition—** No [telecommunications carrier](/usc/47/153.md?p=51) shall submit or execute a change in a subscriber’s selection of a provider of [telephone exchange service](/usc/47/153.md?p=54) or [telephone toll service](/usc/47/153.md?p=55) except in accordance with such verification procedures as the Commission shall prescribe. Nothing in this section shall preclude any [State commission](/usc/47/153.md?p=48) from enforcing such procedures with respect to intrastate services.
- (b) **Liability for charges—** Any [telecommunications carrier](/usc/47/153.md?p=51) that violates the verification procedures described in [subsection (a)](#a) and that collects charges for [telephone exchange service](/usc/47/153.md?p=54) or [telephone toll service](/usc/47/153.md?p=55) from a subscriber shall be liable to the [carrier](/usc/47/153.md?p=11) previously selected by the subscriber in an amount equal to all charges paid by such subscriber after such violation, in accordance with such procedures as the Commission may prescribe. The remedies provided by this subsection are in addition to any other remedies available by law.

## Source credit

(June 19, 1934, ch. 652, title II, § 258, as added Pub. L. 104–104, title I, § 101(a), Feb. 8, 1996, 110 Stat. 77.)