A class action lawsuit has been filed in New York federal court against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and other entities, alleging that consumers are facing exorbitant penalties from tolls.
Plaintiff Jason Farina of Westchester County, N.Y., filed the MTA class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and others who have been charged $100 fees from using New York’s cashless toll systems: EZ Pass and Tolls-By-Mail.
According to the New York toll fees class action lawsuit, all MTA bridges and tunnels switched to cashless toll collecting in 2017. Because of this change, drivers are no longer able to pay cash as toll booths have been dismantled. Instead, tolls are charged using EZ Pass or Tolls-By-Mail.
The EZ Pass tag is a transponder which communicates with the system’s antenna to record information and process a charge for the toll, which is charged to the vehicle owner’s EZ Pass account. If a vehicle is not linked to an EZ Pass account, the Tolls-By-Mail system collects the toll by taking a picture of the vehicle and its license plate, which is used to identify the vehicle owner. A bill for the toll is subsequently mailed to the vehicle owner.
The cashless toll system was meant to eliminate traffic congestion in toll booth lines and allow MTA to shift its employees from collecting tolls into roles focused on the safety and security of motorists.
“However, Defendants — who operate those systems and collect tolls from drivers — have used the cashless toll system to line their own pockets at the expense of drivers, primarily by collecting improper fees and penalties in addition to collecting the tolls,” the MTA toll fee class action lawsuit says.
Farina claims that the penalties faced by drivers who do not pay the toll are often substantially higher than the actual toll and may result in drivers being charged more than $100 to cross a bridge or tunnel. Even worse, the defendants impose these fines without giving prior notice to the drivers and wait weeks before notifying them about the penalties. In the meantime, drivers may unknowingly rack up more charges.
“Defendants also aggressively pursue collection efforts against motorists, threatening them with adverse credit reports, suspension of the driver’s license, revocation of their vehicle registration, and seizure of their tax refunds if they do not immediately pay the fees,” Farina alleges in the MTA toll fee class action lawsuit.
Farina claims that he has been charged more than $6,000 from October 2017 to January 2018 by using his EZ Pass on New York’s bridges and tunnels. He claims he never had any significant problems with his EZ Pass tags or account before experiencing these penalties.
Farina says the defendants’ equipment routinely fails to recognize EZ Pass even when a driver has a fully-funded EZ Pass account. He notes that EZ Pass readings can fail for a variety of reasons, such as window tinting, the position of the vehicle, or a dead EZ Pass battery. EZ Pass users are unable to know when the defendants’ equipment fails to read the EZ Pass.
The MTA class action lawsuit says the toll fees are unconstitutional.
Farina is represented by Stephen J. Fearon Jr. of Squitieri & Fearon LLP.
The MTA Toll Fee Class Action Lawsuit is Jason Farina v. Metropolitan Transportation Authority, et al., Case No. 1:18-cv-01433, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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365 thoughts onEZ Pass Class Action Alleges N.Y. Consumers Face Unconstitutional Toll Fees
My registration was suspended. Ezpass says I owe $8000 dollars the payment option was to pay over 2k a month… Who the hell can pay that. Thats more than my rent payment! They are fn crazy. Of anyone can let me know how to join this please contact me. Mr.Alvin719 gmail plz thank you
Please! I would like to be apart of this lawsuit. EZ Pass sent me a bill for $5000, when I have an active account that replenish itself each month. They are ridiculous. I went on vacation for two weeks and I was charged a toll fee for 5 days when I was away and my car was parked. WE NEED HELP!
I just paid EZ pass Ny $9000 they suspended my registration they claimed I owe $33.000.00 and the actual toll amounts is $2800. They decided to settle for $9000. How can our government sit back and let hard working citizens be ripped off like this and to ruin their lives and livelihood.
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I am confused. I am trying to follow the articles about EZ Pass NY.
There is a button ” Followed Articles”.
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Please how can i join this lawsuit. They ripped me off with $26,870.00
I owe almost $10,000 in violations. It’s ridiculous. How is this possible? It’s unconstitutional. I would like to be added to this lawsuit.
I would like to be added, Just realized that I have statements of $10,000 and they put them in collections, I just gave 1300$ which I didn’t have because they threaten to sue me.
So pist!!!
Please help. I have over 2k in fines and fees. Unrealistic. They are criminals.
I would like to join this lawsuit or start my own one. The ez pass process is bias toward people who don’t have credit cards and would rather pay at the toll as you go
How do I join this Class action Law suit?
I have been trying to pay just the Tolls that I owe online on.the Tolls by Mail web site but not their exhorbitant $100.00 leg breaking USURY/COLLECTION FEE and the web site is not letting me. It wants the credit card information on the “Transaction Overview” section which keeps including $100 in.collections fees (3 times). All I want to do is pay the tolls and I want to dispute the collection fees.
Why are consumers being ripped off like this by these $100 fees when bills have been mailed late and then I receive this additional fee because it says I owe an extra $100. What a scam and what an exhorbitant amount.
HELP!!!!
I want to be part of this class action lawsuit if possible. Being charged insane amount of toll violation and now I can’t even log on to pay anymore because they never send a bill and the website doesn’t allow plate lookup anymore. By the time they send a toll bill, it’s already late with the violation. This is an absolute scam by the MTA.
Is this class action lawsuit still ongoing?
I need help i own about $ 900 in tolls and they are charging me $22687 dollars how can i joint this lawsuit