Northern Utilities seeks exemption from Maine's strict fair competition standards of conduct.

Northern Utilities was seeking to have its program of servicing and maintaining water heaters reclassified from a "non-core" activity to a "core" activity, and be exempt from Maine's strict fair competition standards of conduct. But PHCC of Maine met the utility head-on with a barrage of questions about the justification of such an exemption in the first round of hearings for unfair utility competition.