The Los Angeles City Attorney's Office filed a lawsuit against Time Warner Cable on Thursday for causing "major havoc and distress "to Los Angeles residents when it became the city's main TV provider two years ago.

The lawsuit claims that the company violated its franchise agreement by engaging in "deceptive business practices and false advertising, leading Los Angeles customers to suffer months of cable television and Internet outages, substandard technical and customer service and improper price increases," according to a statement from the City Attorney's Office.

The complaint alleges that Time Warner violated fraudulent acts and business practices which led to the following consequences:

-- consumers paying more for cable TV services than they were led to believe;

-- experiencing excessive service outages;

-- spending hours on the telephone before reaching a customer service representative or sometimes never being able to reach customer service at all;

-- customers having their livelihoods affected by Internet outages and poor Internet service; and being billed for substandard services they had canceled.

"We're bringing this civil law enforcement action against Time Warner Cable because the company has broken multiple laws and harmed countless Los Angeles consumers," City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said after the lawsuit was filed.

"Time Warner Cable must be held accountable for illegally deceiving and ripping off its subscribers," Delgadillo said.

A Time Warner Cable representative was not immediately available to comment.

The New York-based company could face civil penalties of tens of millions of dollars, lawyers said.

Time Warner became the major cable TV provider in the area when it joined with Comcast Corp. in 2006 to buy out bankrupt Adelphia Communications Corp. Time Warner and Comcast then swapped franchises so each would dominate markets in different regions of the country.

The combination was difficult because Time Warner Cable had to upgrade the old Adelphia and Comcast systems and merge them with its own, and nearly 500,000 subscribers in the city were affected.

The lawsuit focuses on service from the fall of 2006 to the spring of 2007.

The lawsuit is asking a judge to "permanently prohibit the company from further engaging in any unlawful, unfair and fraudulent business acts and practices or deceptive advertising and take appropriate action to adopt measures to prevent future acts," according to the City Attorney's Office.

In addition, the city attorney is seeking 2,500 dollars in civil penalties for each violation of the Unfair Competition law as well as an additional 2,500 dollars civil penalty for each violation against senior citizens or disabled persons.

(Xinhua News Agency June 6,2008)