Montana AG Announces Settlement With AT&T Mobility Over Mobile Cramming [AUDIO]
Montana Attorney General Tim Fox announced today that his office reached settlements with AT&T Mobility LLC that include a $105 million payment, and that resolves allegations that AT&T Mobility placed charges for third-party services on consumers’ mobile telephone bills that had not been authorized by the consumer, a practice known as “mobile cramming.”
Fox said the decision affected the entire country.
"It's a national settlement, and it affected attorneys general from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, along with the Federal Trade Commission," Fox said. "All told, it'll be $105 million that AT&T will pay for what is called 'mobile cramming'. That's placing unauthorized charges on your phone bill for services such as horoscopes and texting plans and other things through third party vendors. It's been going on for several years, and has made a lot of people a lot of money."
In addition to the $105 million fine, AT&T Mobility is being forced to fundamentally change the way they do business.
According to a news release from the Attorney General's office;
AT&T Mobility must obtain consumers’ express consent before billing consumers for third-party charges, and must ensure that consumers are only charged for services if the consumer has been informed of all material terms and conditions of their payment;
AT&T Mobility must provide a full refund or credit to consumers who are billed for unauthorized third-party charges at any time after this settlement;
AT&T Mobility also agreed to pay $20 million to the Attorneys General and $5 million to the Federal Communications Commission. Montana received $219,267 for its participation in the settlement.
Montana Attorney General Tim Fox