New Class Proposed in Text Messaging Price-Fixing Class Action Lawsuit

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An Illinois federal judge on Sunday asked plaintiffs to clarify the new class definition they submitted for the 2008 text messaging antitrust class action lawsuit that continues to plod its way through court.

Plaintiffs allege in the class action lawsuit, titled In Re: Text Messaging Antitrust Litigation, that AT&T Mobility LLC, Verizon Wireless LLC, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. conspired to fix prices for text messaging. This alleged conspiracy was sparked by steeply falling costs, which prompted the four companies to exchange price information and increase their texting rates by one-third through a new pricing structure, according to the class action lawsuit.

The multidistrict litigation was consolidated in 2008 before U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly and has survived several appeals by the cellphone companies.

According a new court document filed over the weekend, Judge Kennelly has identified inconsistencies in a new proposed class definition, submitted under seal in September, that appears to have abandoned significant portions of the original class.

“The class definition sets different time periods of membership for different defendants,” Judge Kennelly said. “In this regard, the proposed definition differs from the one proposed [in] plaintiffs’ complaint and their memorandum in support of class certification…. The court requires an explanation for this change.”

The original class as defined in the text messaging price-fixing class action lawsuit consisted of all individuals or entities that purchased text messaging services based on a fee-per-message model in the U.S. from AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Nextel or T-Mobile from January 2005 to the present. The newly proposed class remains under seal.

The Text Messaging Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit case is In re: Text Messaging Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 8-cv-07082, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

UPDATE: Plaintiffs filed a motion Jan. 6, 2014, seeking sanctions against T-Mobile for allegedly destroying evidence that the company deliberately colluded with other wireless carriers to raise the prices of pay-per-use text messages.