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T-Mobile To Pay $90M For Unauthorized Charges On Customers' Bills
itwbennett writes T-Mobile US will pay at least $90 million to settle a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) suit that alleged it looked the other way while third parties charged T-Mobile subscribers for services they didn't want. The settlement is the second largest ever for so-called 'cramming,' following one that the FCC reached with AT&T in October. It came just two days after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued Sprint for the same practice.
Consumers who believe they were wrongly charged will be able to apply for refunds at a website set up for the purpose.
So pretty much T-Mobile could have made hundreds of millions of dollars off of this, but they won't have to pay more than $67.5 million of it unless people realize they were being overcharged, and go to the trouble of applying for a refund. How many people will actually do that? Most people who were wrongfully charged probably don't even realize, especially when it's tucked in between the various ridiculous "fee" line items on the bill. And even if people do realize they are being wrongfully charged, and even if they do know where to go to apply for a refund, unless it's a significant amount most won't bother because either they'll "get around to it later" or figure the slim chance of actually collecting isn't worth their time and hassle.
There should have been a few more million added to hire a team of forensic accountants.