Blumenthal and FCC Commissioner Urge Consumers to Claim Sprint and Verizon Cramming Refund Before Dec. 31 Deadline

(Hartford, CT) – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Federal Communication Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel held a press conference to inform Connecticut consumers on how to claim refunds due from the $158 million federal settlement with Sprint and Verizon over mobile cramming. The deadline to apply for refunds is December 31.

T-Mobile reached a prior $90 million settlement and AT&T reached a $105 million settlement with the FCC, providing similar restitution to consumers.

“This federal settlement will yield refunds—as long as consumers know how to make their claims before the December 31 deadline. Consumers are owed millions from Sprint and Verizon for unauthorized and unscrupulous third-party charges forced on them without consent or even knowledge,” Blumenthal said. “This insidious practice will not be tolerated and carriers who continue to profit by allowing third-parties to deceive their customers through cramming must reform their practices immediately—or face harsh penalties.”

“Cramming” refers to the unscrupulous practice by phone companies and wireless carriers of allowing non-phone company charges to be added onto monthly bills without authorization by the consumer and, in many cases, without the consumer receiving anything in return for those charges.

The FCC settlement not only refunds consumers the money they were scammed out of, it requires Verizon and Sprint to change its practices going forward to ensure this doesn’t happen again. The company must get expressed consent from their subscribers before placing charges on their bills, ensure consumers are notified before the charges appear, and provide information about how to block third-party charges should consumers choose to do so.

An investigation and report by the Senate Commerce Committee, on which Blumenthal serves, has provided overwhelming evidence that cramming on wireless phones has now become widespread and has caused consumers substantial harm. Specifically, a report issued last year found that third-party wireless billing has been a billion dollar industry that has yielded tremendous profits for the four largest wireless carriers, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. The cut that these carriers received was often 30-40 percent of each vendor’s charge. What’s more is that the wireless industry was on notice about significant wireless cramming problems by the late 2000’s, yet they let the abuses continue. Documents obtained by the Committee show carriers allowed vendors with repeatedly high monthly consumer fraud rates – where refund requests often topped 50 percent of monthly revenues – to continue to bill their subscribers.

###