The $90 Million settlement was reached on Dec. 19, Friday by Attorney General Tom Horne and other 49 attorney generals of other States in the District of Columbia, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission with T-Mobile USA Inc., finalizing the suspicion that the mobile company has been placing unauthorized charges for their third party services on to its customer's mobile phone bills. This type of unauthorized charging is called "mobile cramming."
The State of Arizona will be receiving a total of $293,193 from the resolution. Also, all of its 243,000 customers all over the state that were affected by the unruly charges may be able to get a rightful refund. Each customer refunds will vary based on the unauthorized charge that was placed on them.
Most of the T-Mobile consumers have complained that they have been getting charges from premium text messages as subscription to trivia, horoscopes, and sports scores that they did not even subscribed in the first place. It is cramming when T-Mobile started charging these to the customers' monthly phone bills without them knowing.
Attorney General Horne states that charging these alleged subscriptions to every customer without their consent is considered illegal in the State of Arizona under the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act. He also encouraged the citizens of the state to come out and file a restitution claim against the company.
It is known that through the national settlement terms, T-Mobile needs to provide each victimized customer who filed a complaint will be authorized for a full refund. It is specified that T-Mobile will be required to pay at the least of $90 Million where $67.5 Million will be paid back to their consumers. The alleged phone company needs also to pay $18 Million to AG office and $4.5 Million to FCC.
The settlement also states that T-Mobile needs to pay its customers what is due them.