(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), the commission shall have no jurisdiction or control over classified telephone directories or commercial advertising included as part of the corporation’s alphabetical telephone directories, including the charges for and the form and content of such advertising, except that the commission shall investigate and consider revenues and expenses with regard to the acceptance and publication of such advertising for purposes of establishing rates for other services offered by telephone corporations.
(b) If the commission determines, after a hearing, that any federal action would impair its ability to investigate and consider revenues and expenses with regard to the acceptance and publication of telephone directory advertising for the purpose of establishing rates for other services offered by any telephone corporation, the commission shall have the jurisdiction to regulate commercial advertising in alphabetical and classified directories of telephone corporations, except as provided in this subdivision.
(1) The commission’s jurisdiction to regulate commercial advertising in alphabetical and classified directories of telephone corporations under this subdivision shall be limited to the rates and charges for commercial directory advertising, except that the commission shall investigate and consider revenues and expenses of telephone corporations related to that advertising for purposes of establishing rates for other services offered by telephone corporations.
(2) The commission shall also have no jurisdiction over the following:
(i) The form and content of the advertising in alphabetical and classified directories of telephone corporations.
(ii) The form and content of the directories in which that advertising appears.
(iii) Directory advertising practices.
(iv) The determination of the geographic areas served by those directories.
(v) Complaints by any corporation or person regarding directory advertising.
(3) The commission, by its own motion or on petition of any telephone corporation, may, after a hearing, issue an order relinquishing the jurisdiction assumed under this subdivision, except its jurisdiction to investigate and consider the revenues and expenses specified in paragraph (1) if the commission determines that relinquishing the jurisdiction will not affect its ability to investigate and consider those revenues and expenses. As used in this subdivision, “federal action” means the introduction of a bill in Congress, an order of the Federal Communications Commission, or an order or decision of any federal court which would prohibit state regulatory agencies which have no jurisdiction over directory advertising from considering revenues from this source for ratemaking purposes.
(Amended by Stats. 1982, Ch. 1175, Sec. 1. Effective September 20, 1982.)