Verizon Reaches $64M Family SharePlan Billing Class Action Settlement

On Friday, plaintiffs asked a New Jersey federal judge to preliminarily approve a $64.2 million class action settlement over allegations Verizon Communications Inc. overcharged Family SharePlan customers for overage minutes, “in-network” and/or “in-family” calls.

In 2001, Verizon introduced the Family SharePlan, which offered its cellular telephone customers the opportunity to share a monthly allotment of minutes among up to four phones of a fixed charge.

Plaintiff Ralph Demmick alleges he agreed to a flat monthly charge of $149.99 for a Family SharePlan that included 3,000 monthly “Allowance Minutes.” He also paid a flat monthly charge of $20 to include three secondary phones on the plan. Plaintiff Donald Barth also subscribed to a Family SharePlan with a primary phone and two secondary phones.

“Verizon Wireless’ customer service agreement set forth a methodology for sharing of the Allowance Minutes among a group of phones covered by the Family SharePlan,” the plaintiffs’ motion says. “If more than the contractual number of Allowance Minutes were used during any given month, then certain ‘additional minute’ charges would be applied to any such ‘Overage Minutes’ (i.e. minutes in excess of the Allowance Minutes).”

“The rate charged for Overage Minutes incurred on the primary line was lower than the rate charged for Overage Minutes incurred on the secondary line,” the plaintiffs continued. “For both Demmick and Barth, the rate for Overage Minutes applicable to the primary line was 25 cents, and the rate applicable to the secondary lines was 45 cents.”

Demmick and Barth allege Verizon failed to disclose that it would charge overtime minutes at the higher rate associated with secondary phones even if calls were made on the primary phone. Further, the Family SharePlan class action lawsuit alleges that subscribers were improperly billed for calls they had been promised would be free, such as In-Network and In-Family calls.

Verizon denies the allegations but agreed to settle the Family SharePlan class action lawsuit to avoid the expense and uncertainty of ongoing litigation.

The Verizon class action lawsuit was initially filed on May 11, 2006. In 2008, the court a nationwide “Overage Minutes Class” and an “In-Network/In-Family Class.”

Under the terms of the proposed class action settlement, Verizon will offer checks or bill credits to eligible Class Members. Verizon will also offer In-Network Class Members with personal identification numbers that can be used to access a proportionate share of 275 million calling units (a calling unit is equal to one minute for a domestic call). Each PIN will contain at least 600 calling units, and is estimated to be worth at least $60.

The actual amount each Class Member receives will depend on how many valid claims are filed. More than 2 million Class Members are expected to be eligible for benefits from the Verizon class action settlement.

Further information about the Verizon class action settlement was not immediately available.  Keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter for the latest updates. You can also mark this article as a “Favorite” using your free Top Class Actions account to receive notifications when this article is updated.

The plaintiffs are represented by Stephen L. Dreyfuss and Matthew E. Moloshok of Hellring Lindeman Goldstein & Siegal LLP and Peter J. Bezek and Robert A. Curtis of Foley Bezek Behle & Curtis LLP.

The Verizon Family SharePlan Billing Class Action Lawsuit is Ralph Demmick and Donald Barth v. Cellco Partnership d/b/a Verizon Wireless, Case No. 2:06-cv-02163, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

UPDATE: Instructions on how to file a claim for the Verizon class action settlement are now available! Click here or visit www.VerizonFSPClassAction.com for details.

UPDATE 2: On February 22, 2017, Top Class Actions viewers who filed timely and valid claims for the Verizon Wireless Family SharePlan class action settlement began receiving checks worth as much as $13.58!