(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 § 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 § 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.