Qwest Communications' early termination fee imposed upon its customers may be unlawful.

Investigation and pending class action against Qwest Communications International, Inc. ('Qwest') which seeks to void a $200 "Early Termination Fee" Qwest charges customers who cancel their service before the expiration of a purported term commitment, generally of two years.

According to the class action complaint, Qwest surprises customers with the Early Termination Fee when they seek to cancel service. The documents that Qwest provides to customers state that the arrangement is month-to-month, but Qwest contends that customers orally agreed to the longer term. Plaintiffs claim that the supposed oral agreements are unenforceable under the Statute of Frauds, a long-established principle of contract law that requires that agreements for periods of over one year must be set out in signed writings.

The class action lawsuit also claims that the $200 Early Termination Fee is unenforceable because Qwest has not even attempted to estimate its actual losses from early termination of a contract. The fee is the same, regardless of whether the contract is terminated after one month or 23 months. Thus, according to the class action lawsuit, the fee is unreasonably excessive for many consumers.