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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
Does anyone knows if any class action is running against AT&T? My wireless bill insanely Jacks up to $670 because of long distance calls which I haven’t made at all. Please let me know if you have any information as if I can fill a claim.
Your an ass. There’s no crime or shame in wanting or demanding to have your stolen money returned . Get a life, troll.
I wanna be part of a lawsuit! I wanna get money for nothing. I wanna make those greedy bastards pay! Where do I sign up? I got charged for a call that wasn’t mine back in 2006 I wanna sue them for pain and suffering! Where do I go to cripple AT&T? Where is my money? LOL. Whether you admit it or not a lot of you posters on here is exactly what is wrong with America and you will never understand why.
Still no check and no notice. Still waiting. And for those who don’t know, the refunds are dollar for dollar. So, I think most of us can expect more than $9.99. :-)
Please people,don’t get to excited,Im pretty sure the maximum you will get back is no more than 9.99 the ( american way) to settle company mistakes,the majority of settlements goes in lawyers fees and adjustment with companies, Good luck and sit down and wait for your check.
I have not receive my check yet if they started sending checks out in July 2014,why I have not got my check yet. It Christmas time I need my check.
I have had service with AT&T since 2004 here in TX. Not only believe I have been double billed in the past, but I am currently disconnected due to more “fraudulent” charges! Want to be a part of the settlement, AND would like to know who to contact about the current battle we are having with AT&T. For example, they charged me, in one month, for calling the “411 directory assist” line 139 times in one month! This means I would have to of called 4.63 times every day in an average month! this is absurd!! I then looked back on other bills, to find this is not the first time they have billed me for the “411” calls. To make matters worse, these charges are on a line that is not even hooked up to a telephone! This leads into another issue, where we were lied to, taken advantage of, and billed for two lines when we actually only needed to have one… hence the one line not being connected to a land phone!
Would really appreciate some advice or referral to someone that could assist us in this battle.
Thank you;
my mother is 75 y/o they were taking over $125 a mounth from her fixed income for over a year before i caught on to it they still will not return the money thay took from her SHAM ON YOU AT&T big bullies .. casey tilley texas.
Sham on you! Maybe one day UNICEF will get into the phone business but until then you have to pay. No one is forcing your mother to have a landline. Maybe she should have read the bill and called AT&T to discuss monthly charges. What amount is fair do you think? What type of work do you do?
I wish to be party to this litigation. Please forward me all the pertinent data as soon as possible.
I too have had problem with my bill. I was unaware of the proceedings. Please forward me info so I can become a member of this litigation.