AT&T Must Face Class Action Over DirecTV Streaming Charges, Ninth Circuit Rules

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AT&T DirecTV Now Class Action Lawsuit Overview: 

• Who: The Ninth Circuit revived a class action lawsuit lodged against AT&T. 
• Why: The plaintiff claimed AT&T broke several California laws by charging unknowing customers for its DirectTV Now streaming service. 
• Where: The class action lawsuit was originally filed in California federal court. 

AT&T will face revived class action claims that it charges its customers for DirecTV Now streaming service without their permission under a recent ruling issued by a panel of Ninth Circuit judges.

The panel disagreed with the lower courts assertion that arbitration for the class action lawsuit was unenforceable under California law. 

Lead plaintiff David Cotrell argues AT&T violated several California laws — including the California Unfair Competition Law — by charging customers for DirecTV Now streaming service without their knowledge or consent.

Cotrell is asking that AT&T inform and stop charging unknowing and nonconsenting customers for its streaming service, and to account for all the money the company received from doing so.

The Ninth Circuit said that, since the relief would only affect AT&T customers, it would not be considered public and is allowed. 

The lower court had pointed to legal precedent in determining AT&T’s arbitration agreement with consumers kept them from being able to seek public injunctive relief.

AT&T Class Action Green Lit Using Comcast Ruling

The Ninth Circuit cited a similar case — Hodges v. Comcast Cable Communications — while ruling instead that seeking relief was acceptable so long as it was just for AT&T consumers and not all members of the general public. 

“The district court determined that Cotrell sought public injunctive relief, so it declined to compel arbitration,” the panel said. “Whatever we might think of that conclusion if we were to make our own assessment of California law, it is foreclosed by our intervening decision in Hodges.”

Hodges had asked that Comcast not be allowed to use customers’ viewing preferences to create targeted ads, and, since the relief would only affect Comcast customers, the Ninth Circuit determined it did not trigger a California law which would block such relief. 

Earlier this year, a Florida man lodged a class action accusing AT&T of offering Reward Cards worth up to $400 to consumers who switch to its services, but then never sending the cards or sending them so close to their expiration date that they become unusable.

Did AT&T charge you for its DirectTV Now streaming service without your knowledge or consent? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiff is represented by Jeffrey Lewis, Benjamin Blystad Gould and Maxwell Holt Goins of Keller Rohrback LLP. 

The AT&T DirecTV Now Class Action Lawsuit is Cottrell. v. AT&T Inc., et al., Case No. 3:19-cv-07672, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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