AT&T gets put in their place by Washington State Supreme Court – loses roaming-charge class action lawsuit

Is there anything better than news of a huge corporation getting served the smackdown from a State Supreme Court? Washington State’s Supreme Court just laid down a ruling that effectively loses AT&T (NYSE: T) their roaming-charge class action lawsuit. The class action lawsuit, filed back in 2004 (when AT&T was Cingular), alleges the company of advertising free roaming on AT&T’s network (which was still a separate entity from Cingular) and then reneging on their promise – leading to overcharges ranging from $1 to $40 per month. AT&T argued that the wireless service contracts forbid subscribers from initiating a class-action suit, but the Washington State Supreme Court says differently – banning a class action lawsuit would “effectively den[y] large numbers of consumers the protection of Washington’s Consumer Protection Act,” adding that class actions are necessary to “strongly deter future similar wrongful conduct, which benefits the community as a whole.”

With AT&T main guns taken out of commission, this battle is nearly over. The class action is likely to result in some sort of settlement for Washington State AT&T customers. Well done, Washingtonians! As much as we love AT&T for their iPhone, we love seeing corporations getting “served” a whole lot more.

[Via: Cellular News]