Does a Mobile Phone Settlement Result in Increased Credit Scores?
T-Mobile USA, Inc. has settled a class action lawsuit for an amount not to exceed $5 million due to privacy violations. Class Members of this T-Mobile class action lawsuit includes any non-iaries customer who received a cellular phone call from T-Mobile utilizing an automatic dialer system between Sept and March . Also included are customers who purchased an eligible version of the Mobile Phone Service from an approved vendor between July and June . The complaint asserts that the defendants violated the Federal Trade Commission’s ban on antibundling or anti-spamming practices, which was implemented to protect the consumer from deception in order to receive better service and price discounts.
Class Action Lawsuit T Mobile
The complaint further claims that the defendants violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) because they called consumers with advance notice of their intent to contact the individual. The class action lawsuit also claims that defendants did not properly inform the prospective plaintiffs of the nature of their advertising and did not advise the plaintiffs that they could receive cash for their phone calls. Finally, the complaint contends that T-Mobile encouraged consumers to call the toll free number displayed on their wireless phones in order to increase their chances of receiving more expensive phone calls from other call marketers.
On Aug. 8, the plaintiffs filed a complaint against T-Mobile and its subsidiary, MetroPCS, LLC.
On Aug. 8, the parties filed their Answer to the complaint and a scheduling conference was set for later in the month. On Dec. 4, the District Court denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss.
On Dec. 3, the plaintiffs filed an additional complaint in which they allege that the defendants did not act reasonably when they warned a class of potential plaintiffs of the possibility of a class action lawsuit.
Specifically, the plaintiffs claim that the defendants failed to warn the class that they would be liable for the costs of calling a toll free number to redeem a cell phone number. Furthermore, on several occasions, the defendants did not comply with the requirements required by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), as well as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TPCA).
Accordingly, on Dec. 4, the case was moved to a federal district court.
Judge Peter Carr indicated that he intended to enter a summary judgment for the class actions, and on Dec. 7, a jury trial date was scheduled for the case.
During the course of the months-long litigation, according to the class action lawsuit, the defendants repeatedly violated the FDCPA, the Class Action Lawsuits further alleged, and the cost of calling a toll free number to redeem cell phone numbers has skyrocketed.
As a result, some of the consumers have reduced their cellular phone minutes to as few as two or three. In addition, many of the consumers have also been unable to establish accounts with leading credit card companies, including MasterCard, Discover and Visa, due to the fact that they were instructed by defendants not to use cards to pay for items purchased on “the World Wide Web.”
Thus, while a majority of the plaintiffs were able to successfully sue the defendants for violating the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act and failing to comply with proper notice and consent requirements, other class members have been unable to do so.
