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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
EZ pass is highway Robbery. I’m being told are all over $28,000 in violation fees for maybe $1000 worth of tools and my registration will be suspended unless I pay up I don’t. I need to join this class action lawsuit this is not right. I’ve tried to get thru to customer service for months. Excessive hold time for hours. Please help
I am having the exact same problem I just received a notice yesterday for the first time that I owe $14,000 and easy pass tolls won the originals probably 800 bucks it’s crazy and I had the easy pass and apparently it wasn’t reading
I need to joint this law suit how can I joint. Very unjust system
I’m from Canada and used the NY State tolls once. After receiving a 13,85$ bill, I tryed paying by phone (impossible with a canadian zip code), on the website through my phone and home computer 5 times (the website either shows “Were sorry, the system is unavailable. Please try again later.” or the site crashes when making payment, leaving you not knowing if it worked or not). I tryed combinations on the voicemail until I could talk to someone, who just transfered me to a number that just never answered after hours of waiting. The **826 number doesn’t work with a canadian phone either. After all these attempts, they now sent me a notice of violation with outrageous fees and I still can’t figure out how to pay the bill. As a canadian, can I be added to the class action?
My wife handles the ez pass and the stress it puts her through is painful . Just paid over $10,000 in ez pas fines . There’s major corruption behind this . Where’s all this money going ? The city is falling apart . Why aren’t we doing anything about this ? Can I be added to your lawsuit please ?
just paid 6 grand in ezpass violation tolls from 2018 that i never got notice about to I got a letter from DMV saying my registration will be suspended. Highway robbery. Please add me
Ez pass toll has gotten me for over 10,000 in the past 2 years.. This is insane in addition to my monthly payments there’s always some additional fees 😒 n xtra tolls fee last month was 700.00 dollars.. I’d love a settlement for the people can u imagine just how much money they are swindling from hard working Americans..
I have over 13k in fees
Please direct me to whom I can contact and be added to this lawsuit. I had an active and fully funded account and was receiving tools by mail with late fees. I called ex pass 9 times trying to rectify the problem and nothing. There were days they charged my ezpass account and days they mailed it which was very confusing. Next thing I know I’m in collections with owing over $4000. I need help.
How do I join this action? I’m sick of paying late fees on bills that arrive already late. I ask for paperless, and no. Only way out is to pay EZPass monthly fees, which don’t make sense for us.
I would like to be added to this lawsuit myself. It is outrageous the fees that they are charging. They’re robbing us!!!!!
I so agree, not only are they sending violations they are also taking it from account. They want to suspend registration. Told them I will pay for tolls no problem, they want for the admin fees as well. They are a scam and lie when you call. If you google ez pass headquarters you get an accounting firm who asked the number to be removed 7-8 years ago.
I need to file a claim
I need to file a a claim also for $80 worth of toll and ezpass want $3500
I need to file a claim as well. I got a violation letter in the mail stating that I owed $1.75 in tolls and $50 in fees! Went online to pay to find out I have $350 in fees for tolls that I never received a bill for. Help!