T-Mobile has settled with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over a case that alleged it had "crammed" unauthorized charges onto subscribers' bills.
T-Mobile has agreed to pay $90 million out to customers who were charged as much as $10 per month for unsolicited horoscopes, jokes and other nonsense.
The settlement dictates that T-Mobile spends at least $67.5 million on a program for consumer refunds, $18 million to state governments and $4.5 million to the US treasury.
Current and former T-Mobile subscribers who think they may have been affected can head to tmobilerefund.com to request a refund once the site is up and running.
Who's next?
"Yet again we are faced with a phone company that profited while its customers were fleeced by third parties who placed unauthorized charges on their phone bills," FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said in a rather self-congratulatory statement. "And once again the FCC is standing up for those customers."
"Today's settlement holds T-Mobile responsible for its billing practices and puts money directly back into the pockets of American consumers," he continued.
The case against T-Mobile began over the summer, and it's nice to see it come to a swift end, but it's just one of numerous identical suits against carriers in the US.
AT&T reached a similar settlement with the FTC (though for an even larger $105 million) in October, while the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took Sprint to task for cramming this week.
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Via GigaOM
