AT&T To Settle Class Action Lawsuit

AT&T has settled a class action lawsuit that was filed against it over hidden and unclear charges its customers received for ringtones and similar 3rd party content. Similar suits are currently underway against Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile.

The reason behind the suit is the fact that when customers sign up for ringtones or other third party content by responding to a web or text message, the charges that they incur are sometimes hidden or confusing, and very often, recurring. Customers are more often than not, unaware of this. The settlement requires that AT&T only apply those third party services after customers respond to a consent text message informing them of the recurring charge, and third party content providers are to send a monthly reminder message to the user.

Aside from that, AT&T will refund any recurring or obscure third party content related charges from up to 3 separate monthly bills for any of its subscribers.