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Mississippi class action lawsuit takes aim at US wireless carriers for SMS text messaging charges

By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 1:39 PM

Class-action lawsuit over sms text messagesAny parent that’s had their tween-to-teenaged child rack up stratospheric wireless bills knows intimately how expensive a few text messages can get. With a 160-character limit on every SMS text message, it can take more than a few text messages to express your thoughts – at 5 to 10 cents per message, those thoughts can get mighty pricey. And, it’s not just outgoing text messages that get charged to your monthly wireless bill – incoming text messages rack up the charges just as quickly as outgoing messages.

So much so that a new class-action lawsuit has been filed in a Mississippi federal court. The class-action names six US wireless carriers – AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, Alltel, US Cellular, Cellular South, Virgin Mobile – and seeks compensation for “unauthorized charges, wrongful collections and unjust enrichment.” Apparently, charging customers for receiving unsolicited text messages “without offering its customers the opportunity to avoid such charges by opting out of text messaging and refusing to disable its customers’ text messaging service,” is the complaint at the forefront of the class-action lawsuit. 

We’ll see how this class-action pans out. If it works out, the carriers named in the suit could be forced by court-order to make incoming SMS text messaging free for its customers. On the other hand, an out-of-court settlement could just lead to a measly credit to your monthly bill.

[Via: RCR News]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • Raidium

    I think this lawsuit is a great idea. I’ve had cases like this with family and being in the cell phone business, I am constantly having to help them deal with monthly crediting to there billing. If they stopped charges on incoming messages, people would only have to worry about what they are sending out which would make life that mush easier. I hope this works out for the better!

  • Ritesh

    Are incoming sms’es charged in the US? LOL…. thats the most absurd thing I have heard recently.