Metro East Center for Conditioning & Health v. Qwest Communications International, Inc. (294 F.3d 924, 2002)

EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge.

When Metro East Center for Conditioning and Health chose a new vendor for local phone service, it neglected to name an interstate carrier, so one was assigned at random — Qwest Communications, which played that role for six months (February through July 2001) before Metro East specified a different carrier. Qwest’s tariff on file with the Federal Communications Commission had two pertinent provisions: First, it set the monthly minimum fee per line (the “presubscription charge”) that each customer must pay; second, it provided that any dispute would be resolved by arbitration. (We use the past tense because the tariff was canceled on July 31, 2001, as part of the fcc’s detariffing program. Today Qwest uses a published statement of rates and rules, which presumably may be varied by customer-specific contracts. But the tariff was in force when the parties’ dispute arose and thus governs its resolution.) Metro East contends that it uses Centrex service so that the monthly fee was 45$- per fine; Qwest believes that Metro East is not a Centrex user and that the tariff therefore specified a monthly charge of $4.25. The total in contention is about $80, and the simplified procedures of arbitration are especially attractive for small-stakes disputes. But Metro East believes that the controversy is so small that neither arbitration nor ordinary litigation makes sense. It filed this suit seeking to represent a class of all customers who qualify for but did not receive the 45