ROTTERDAM — Time Warner Cable, which has faced a storm of customer backlash after announcing a new $3.95 monthly "lease" fee for its cable customers, is now facing a pair of class-action lawsuits over the issue.

Attorney Steven Wittels and The Roth Law Firm, both of New York City, are representing Time Warner customers in the suits, which were filed in state Supreme Court of New York County and Superior Court in Bergen County in New Jersey.

The lawsuits are seeking an injunction against Time Warner to stop billing customers for the new charge.

Time Warner spokeswoman Jennifer Holick declined to comment on the suits, which cover 15 million customers in 29 states where the company operates, from Alabama to Wisconsin.

The lawyers who brought the suits claim that Time Warner will end up collecting $40 million a month from the new lease fees and that the strategy could end up pushing Time Warner's annual revenues past $20 billion. The new fee took effect Oct. 15.

"It's a massive high-tech consumer fraud accomplished by low-tech methods," said Wittels.

The lawsuits allege that Time Warner's customer agreements do not allow the company to charge a modem fee.

They also claim that Time Warner violated its own policy of waiting 30 days for imposing such a fee after alerting customers.

"They just can't do what they want to do," Roth, the other class-action lawyer, told the Times Union by phone on Wednesday.

Time Warner says on its website that customers can buy their own modem if they want to as long as it is compatible with the company's system. However, some consumer advocacy groups have warned of price-gouging now for those approved modems.

In a news release, the two law firms claim that Time Warner is using the additional $40 million in monthly revenue to fund infrastructure operating costs and product development and that in the past, the company has written off the cost of old modems.

Time Warner did notify Internet-only customers at the same time that it imposed the new lease fee that it was reducing its standard Internet pricing by $3.95 a month.

lrulison@timesunion.com • 518-454-5504 • @larryrulison