The filed-rate doctrine

is at the intersection of torts and administrative law.  In "Eighth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Consumer Fraud Action Based on the Filed Rate Doctrine", on his Consumer Class Actions and Mass Torts blog, Russell Jackson discusses a recent case where the plaintiff, claiming his cable company got paid twice for the same improvements, ran head into the filed rate doctrine.  The defendant got the FCC to approve a surcharge for the improvements, then it got the local city council to approve a rate hike for the same stuff.  However, under the filed rate doctrine courts will not interfere with the rate for a regulated utility when the rate has been approved by the appropriate authority.  Even where, as here, fraud is alleged, any court action

... is directly contrary to the filed rate doctrine, which "prohibits a party from recovering damages measured by comparing the filed rate and the rate that might have been approved absent the conduct in issue."

EMM