{"data":{"id":"us-md/md.-code-public-utilities-4-503","jurisdiction":"us-md","citation":"Md. Code, Public Utilities § 4–503","heading":"","body":"(a) This section does not apply to service rendered or commodities furnished:\n(1) to the officers, employees, pensioners, and immediate family members of the officers, employees, and pensioners of a public service company;\n(2) to the United States, the State, or a local government;\n(3) to provide relief in cases of general epidemic, pestilence, flood, or other similar calamity;\n(4) in the case of common carriers, to transport:\n(i) personnel of another common carrier that reciprocates for personnel of the transporting common carrier;\n(ii) hospital patients;\n(iii) indigent, destitute, and homeless individuals;\n(iv) persons exclusively engaged in charitable work;\n(v) residents of federal or State veterans homes, including those about to enter a home or those returning from a home;\n(vi) railway mail service employees and baggage agents;\n(vii) post office, customs, and immigration inspectors;\n(viii) newspaper vendors;\n(ix) property for exhibition carried to or from fairs and expositions;\n(x) employees of sleeping car companies, express companies, telegraph companies, and telephone companies doing business along the line of the common carrier;\n(xi) persons and property incident to or connected with contracts for construction, operation, or maintenance of the plant of the transportation company, to the extent provided in the contracts;\n(xii) individuals injured in accidents and physicians, nurses, or other necessary caretakers attending the injured individuals in transit;\n(xiii) children under the age of 5 years for no charge;\n(xiv) children under 12 years for half fare; or\n(xv) persons at free or reduced rates that are otherwise authorized by law;\n(5) in the case of common carriers, for the issuance of mileage, excursion, or commuter tickets;\n(6) to free steamboat excursion transportation from May through August of each year, from Baltimore City to any place in the State, in exchange for services rendered in advertising the excursion business;\n(7) to obtain essential data by a method that uses a limited sample of customers, in connection with a rate structure study conducted under formal proceedings before the Commission;\n(8) to telephone lifeline service provided to eligible subscribers under § 8–201 of this article; or\n(9) to electricity or gas service provided to eligible limited–income customers through an approved limited–income mechanism under § 4–308 of this title.\n(b) For any service rendered or commodity furnished, a public service company may not directly or indirectly, by any means, including special rates, rebates, drawbacks, or refunds:\n(1) charge, demand, or receive from a person compensation that is greater or less than from any other person under substantially similar circumstances;\n(2) extend a privilege or facility to a person, except those privileges and facilities that are extended uniformly to all persons under substantially similar circumstances;\n(3) discriminate against a person, locality, or particular class of service; or\n(4) give undue or unreasonable preference to or cause undue or unreasonable prejudice to a person, locality, or particular class of service.","path":["Article - Public Utilities"],"source_url":"https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gpu\u0026section=4-503","current_through":"2026-01-01","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-09-14T20:00:28Z","sha256":"781f66243d9e54b829eba3ad70a4f4af527854c48fd26ea383920f310aac0790","source_id":"us-md","stale":false,"prev":"us-md/md.-code-public-utilities-4-502","next":"us-md/md.-code-public-utilities-4-504"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}