COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Duke Energy has reached an $81 million settlement agreement to end a class-action lawsuit alleging it gave improper rebates to some large electric customers of its Ohio subsidiary.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based utility denies the allegations and says Wednesday it’s settling to avoid litigation “costs and uncertainties.” It says a federal court in Columbus would have to approve the proposal.
An attorney for the plaintiffs says the class includes over a million residential and nonresidential customers in southwest Ohio. Attorney Bill Markovits says Duke’s payments to 22 large customers were unfair to hundreds of thousands of others who followed the rules.
The lawsuit claims contracts between Duke Energy Retail Sales and some of Duke Energy Ohio’s industrial and business customers from 2005 through 2008 violated anti-trust and other laws.
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