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A federal judge on Friday preliminarily approved a class action lawsuit settlement with AT&T Inc. over allegations it illegally billed thousands of landline customers for third-party services they didn’t order, a practice known in the industry as “cramming.”
The AT&T cramming settlement will resolve a 2009 class action lawsuit, titled Nwabueze v. AT&T Inc., that alleges AT&T purchased accounts receivables from other billers, billed its customers for third-party services, took a cut of the collected money and gave the remaining money to the original services. According to the class action lawsuit, however, AT&T had no system in place to make sure the third-party charges were legitimate. This allowed companies to piggyback onto AT&T’s bills just by using a customer’s phone number, without having to prove that the customer actually owed them money.
AT&T denies wrongdoing, despite eliminating third-party billing on January 1, 2011.
The practice of cramming has come under fire in recent years, leading the FCC in April 2012 to pass new regulations requiring telephone companies to inform customers of their right to block third-party charges from their bills. The FCC also mandates that third-party charges appear separate from the telephone company’s charges on bills.
“Most consumers don’t know when there are crammed charges on their bills,” the FCC said in a statement. “Crammers often avoid detection by charging a small amount to each consumer — as little as $1.99 per month — or describing charges in a manner that makes them appear to be for services from the phone company.”
Under the AT&T landline cramming class action settlement, AT&T customers who were billed for third-party services from 2005 to the present will be able to file claims to receive a refund. Current AT&T customers will receive the refunds as phone-bill credits, while former customers will receive checks.
Details on how to file a claim for the AT&T third-party billing class action lawsuit settlement can be found in our Open Class Action Lawsuits section.
The AT&T Landline Cramming Class Action Lawsuit Settlement case is Nwabueze v. AT&T Inc., et al., Case No. 9-cv-01529, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Plaintiffs are represented by Jeffrey F. Keller of Keller Grover LLP, John G. Jacobs and Bryan G. Kolton of Jacobs Kolton Chtd. and Michael W. Sobol and Jahan C. Sagafi of Leiff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP.
UPDATE: The AT&T landline class action settlement was approved at the Final Fairness Hearing but settlement distribution was delayed by an appeal filed by a single Class Member in December 2013. That appeal was voluntarily dismissed in March 2014, allowing the Settlement Administrator to begin processing claims and payments.
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102 thoughts onAT&T Billing Class Action Settlement Preliminarily Approved
AT&T is till double billing, engages in false advertising regarding Internet speeds and has consistently strong armed us into keeping their service. I’m kind of glad we did for the time being. I can now go back and look at I cloud updates (I have them under several accts) and compare the Internet usage per update and compare what AT&T has on record for billing, vs what the usage was on my wifi at home and on the satellite card. I now have comcast Internet and am in the process of still collecting the data just for us alone. Don’t mess with unemployed tech geeks who have nothing better to do than look over my bills and compare usage on line vs AT&T records vs wifi and satellite cards. I’m still collecting data and could use assistance in ensuring the info gets to where it needs to go.
My husband and I stopped ALL contact with AT&T because of this billing issue. It took over three months and the help of our techie son to track these charges down. We now let everyone we know about the problem and how inflexible AT&T is to help remediate it.
it looks as if in April they will have more info on how to be apart of this class action
I had this happen to my phone bill once a year since 2005. I usually showed up on the statement between Sept to December.
I have continue to receive billings with increases and no comment or explaination. I wish to become a part of this lawsuit.
My monthly bills have continued to increase with no explaination or comments. I have found it difficult to understand and am very unhappy with their service.
How does one become part of this class action lawsuit.
I have never recieved any type of notification either. I have, however, questioned ATT many times over the inconsistancy and constant increases on my bills.
ydep3
I never received any type of notice from AT&T about filing a claim for the AT&T third-party billing class action lawsuit settlement. I distinctly remember having issues with AT&T (then Bellsouth) over the years while I was a landline customer about third party billing charges on my phone bill. How do I become part of the lawsuit? Any help is appreciated. Thank you.
Since 2006 I’ve had at&t homeline. I would like to be part of law suit.
https://www.lataxrefund.com/Home.aspx $30 refund for residential customers, $50 for business type account between 2005-2008 file you claim by mid February 2016.
I did get mail about the law suit .I did have AT&T land phone. I could not get thim to understand some of the charges was not mine. The bill got to high, and I could not pay the bill. Please let me know what I have to do to be part of this lawsuit.
I have no idea as to why you couldn’t make them understand.