Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
Update:
- A federal judge in California gave the green light to a $9.4 million settlement agreement between DirecTV and a group of small businesses who accused the company of setting them up to be penalized.
- The small businesses alleged DirecTV intentionally signed them up for residential accounts so that they could later fine them for using their accounts for their businesses.
- The judge decided to OK the deal after Lonstein Law Office, a law firm that opposed the agreement, failed to show up for a hearing to discuss it.
- Lonstein Law Office had argued that the settlement agreement wrongly placed blame on it and that it was unlawful for DirecTV to include a promise to never hire the firm again for representation in the deal.
DirecTV $9.4M settlement overview:
- Who: DirecTV will pay $9.4 million to settle claims it preyed on minority-owned small businesses.
- Why: The plaintiffs claim the company intentionally signed the businesses up for residential accounts and then penalized them for using the account for a business.
- Where: The lawsuit was settled in California federal court.
(March 25, 2022)
DirecTV has agreed to pay a $9.4 million settlement to settle claims it preyed on minority-owned businesses, selling them residential TV packages to later “catch” them playing DirecTV content in their businesses.
In a memorandum filed Mar. 22 in a California federal court, plaintiffs asked a judge to give preliminary approval to the deal after five years of litigation.
Plaintiff Doneyda Perez originally filed the class action complaint Aug. 4, 2016, alleging DirecTV ran an illegal scheme that violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
She is representing a class of business owners who purchased DirecTV services for their business that were designated by the company as “residential” accounts and were then subsequently “shaken down” by DirecTV’s lawyers for “settlement” of alleged commercial misuse claims.
DirecTV allegedly sent secret auditors to small, minority-owned businesses
The lawsuit claimed the company would target small and mostly minority-owned businesses for the scheme in which the company would target them with “unsolicited sales campaigns” that urged them to sign up for satellite cable services with DirecTV.
However, without their knowledge, the company reps would sign them up for individual accounts even though they knew the service would be used in a business, the lawsuit alleged.
DirecTV would then send secret auditors who would try to catch the businesses playing DirecTV for commercial use. The company would then reach out threatening legal action if the small businesses didn’t pay a settlement, which often totaled thousands of dollars.
Class members said none of them were ever told their accounts would be classed as residential.
If the settlement gets final approval, $9.4 million will go into a fund for the proposed class members in exchange for them waiving their claims with $3.1 million of those funds going to lawyers’ fees. Class representatives will receive $80,000 each.
In February 2021, a district judge ruled for the second time that DirecTV cannot settle claims it spams customers with unwanted marketing calls through arbitration.
West Virginia District Judge John Preston Bailey called DirecTV’s move to settle a class action lawsuit’s claims outside of court “unconscionable” and “absurd.”
Have you had a contract with DirecTV? Let us know your experience in the comments!
The proposed class is represented by Mahoney Law Group APC.
The DirecTV Small Business Owners Class Action Lawsuit is Doneyda Perez v. DirecTV Group Holdings LLC et al., Case No. 8:16-cv-01440, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Don’t Miss Out!
Check out our list of Class Action Lawsuits and Class Action Settlements you may qualify to join!
Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:
63 thoughts onJudge approves $9.4M DirecTV settlement in class action alleging company preyed on minority-owned small businesses
Add me
I was overcharge for 20 years by direct t.v charge for there cable boxes overcharge for the cable