WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Dec. 8 that it will provide more than $88 million in refunds to roughly 2.7 million AT&T consumers.
These consumers allegedly had third-party charges added to their mobile bills without consent – a tactic known as “cramming” in the telecommunications industry.
This is the most amount of money to ever be returned to consumers in a mobile cramming case. About 2.5 million of the affected consumers will receive the refund via a credit on their AT&T bill within the next 75 days. Another 300,000 former customers will receive a check. The average refund amount is $31.
“AT&T received a high volume of complaints related to mobile cramming prior to the FTC and other federal and state agencies stepping in on consumers’ behalf,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. “I am pleased that consumers are being refunded their money and that AT&T has changed its mobile billing practices.”
The refunds relate to a 2014 settlement with AT&T and two third-party companies behind the alleged cramming schemes, Tatto and Acquinity.