# Public Utilities (GPU)

## Title 4. Rate Regulation

### Subtitle 5. Prohibitions

#### Section 4-503

(a) This section does not apply to service rendered or commodities furnished:

  (1) to the officers, employees, pensioners, and immediate family members of the officers, employees, and pensioners of a public service company;

  (2) to the United States, the State, or a local government;

  (3) to provide relief in cases of general epidemic, pestilence, flood, or other similar calamity;

  (4) in the case of common carriers, to transport:

    (i) personnel of another common carrier that reciprocates for personnel of the transporting common carrier;

    (ii) hospital patients;

    (iii) indigent, destitute, and homeless individuals;

    (iv) persons exclusively engaged in charitable work;

    (v) residents of federal or State veterans homes, including those about to enter a home or those returning from a home;

    (vi) railway mail service employees and baggage agents;

    (vii) post office, customs, and immigration inspectors;

    (viii) newspaper vendors;

    (ix) property for exhibition carried to or from fairs and expositions;

    (x) employees of sleeping car companies, express companies, telegraph companies, and telephone companies doing business along the line of the common carrier;

    (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;

    (xii) individuals injured in accidents and physicians, nurses, or other necessary caretakers attending the injured individuals in transit;

    (xiii) children under the age of 5 years for no charge;

    (xiv) children under 12 years for half fare; or

    (xv) persons at free or reduced rates that are otherwise authorized by law;

  (5) in the case of common carriers, for the issuance of mileage, excursion, or commuter tickets;

  (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;

  (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;

  (8) to telephone lifeline service provided to eligible subscribers under Sec. 8-201 of this article; or

  (9) to electricity or gas service provided to eligible limited-income customers through an approved limited-income mechanism under Sec. 4-308 of this title.

(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:

  (1) charge, demand, or receive from a person compensation that is greater or less than from any other person under substantially similar circumstances;

  (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;

  (3) discriminate against a person, locality, or particular class of service; or

  (4) give undue or unreasonable preference to or cause undue or unreasonable prejudice to a person, locality, or particular class of service.

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Md. Code Ann., Pub. Util. (as displayed at mgaleg.maryland.gov, October 16, 2026)