Posted at 6:20 PM ET
A federal appeals court has upheld a judgment for a small cable operator in Florida against a Comcast cable operation accused of anti-competitive behavior.
In 2006, a federal-court jury awarded 9,000-subscriber Marco Island Cable, which operates on a barrier island near Naples, Fla., a $3.2 million judgment against Comcast Cablevision of the South. The sum was reduced to $800,000 in 2007 after Comcast appealed. Comcast appealed that judgment, too.
Three judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed U.S. District Judge John E. Steele's 2007 judgment after hearing oral arguments last October. A copy of their Feb. 13 decision can be found here.
Marco Island Cable sued Comcast in 2004, claiming the bigger cable operator used unfair business practices against the smaller firm in condominiums, apartment buildings and other multiple dwelling units (MDUs).
