Here’s some quick back story on this suit against Cingular/AT&T. Back in 2006, a Cingular employee noticed a charge on his bill for Washington’s Business & Occupation tax. For this he sued the carrier, citing breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and violation of Washington’s Consumer Protection Act. How did these charges come about? Because it amounted to Cingular passing along a tax on its business to its customers. Unfortunately for Washington consumers, the case was thrown out by a federal judge, who said that the Federal Communications Act keeps mobile carriers safe from some state laws. An appeals court in good old California has reinstate the case, according to Reuters.
The passing of the buck itself isn’t really what’s at issue here, though it doesn’t seem right to do so. Rather, the case is about Cingular not disclosing this cost to consumers when negotiating the monthly price of service. In other words, they kind of just snuck the charge onto bills, hoping people wouldn’t notice the nominal increase in rate. This is what ticked off the Cingular employees, as well as the rest of the class.
“The FCC and state regulators sat on their hands and let them get away with it and finally ordinary people took matters into their own hands … and they won,” said Regina Costa, telecommunications researcher for The Utility Reform Network.
Given the way other cases have panned out in California’s appeals courts, we might see yet another victory for consumers in this one.
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