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Consumer Protection
T-Mobile Unlimited T-Zones Double Billing
Full Recovery Settlement of T-Mobile Overcharging Case
Chimicles & Tikellis LLP and the Miller Law Firm P.C. filed a complaint alleging that defendant T-Mobile overcharged its subscribers by billing them for data access services even though T-Mobile's subscribers had already paid a flat rate monthly fee of $5 or $10 to receive unlimited access to those various data services. The data services include Unlimited T-Zones, Any 400 Messages, T-Mobile Web, 1000 Text Messages, Unlimited Mobile to Mobile, Unlimited Messages, T-Mobile Internet, T-Mobile Internet with corporate My E-mail, and T-Mobile Unlimited Internet and Hotspot. Chimicles & Tikellis LLP and the Miller Law Firm defeated a motion by T-Mobile to force resolution of these claims via arbitration and successfully convinced the Court to strike down as unconscionable a provision in T-Mobile's subscription contract prohibiting subscribers from bringing class actions. After that victory, the parties reached a settlement requiring T-Mobile to provide class members with a net recovery of the full amount of the un-refunded overcharges with all costs for notice, claims administration, and counsel fees paid in addition to class members' 100% net recovery. The gross amount of the overcharges, which occurred from April 2003 through June 2006, is approximately $6.7 million. To date, T-Mobile has refunded approximately $4.5 million of those overcharges. A significant portion of those refunds were the result of new policies T-Mobile instituted after the filing of the Complaint. Pursuant to the Settlement, T-Mobile will refund the remaining $2.2 million of un-refunded overcharges.
If you have questions about this case or other potential cases regarding cell phone service, please contact Steven A. Schwartz at 610-642-8500. More information about this Settlement can be found on the website dedicated to this Settlement--wongsettlement.com. If you have any questions regarding your particular claim in this case, you can contact the Settlement Claims Administrator at Wong v T-Mobile Settlement Administrator, P.O. Box 3266, Portland, OR 97208-3266. The Court approved the settlement on December 13, 2007. Links to copies of the Court-approved Notice of Settlement and other relevant documents are set forth below.
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