T-Mobile USA loses battle in cell phone text messaging case

Jul 21, 2008 (Datamonitor via COMTEX) -- DT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- The law firm of Hagens Berman has announced that T-Mobile USA, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, has lost a ruling when a US District Court judge denied its motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a group of disgruntled T-Mobile subscribers, claiming the company charges them and millions of T-Mobile customers for unsolicited text messages.

According to the complaint, customers have no way to disable the phones from receiving text messages, often in the form of spam, and are forced to pay between 10 and 15 cents for every message.

According to named plaintiff Marco Zaldivar, in addition to charging him for receipt of unwanted text messages, the company also failed to highlight this practice in his service contract.

Mr Zaldivar claimed that nowhere did T-Mobile advertising include the fact that the company charges customers for all incoming messages. He alleged that both online and in-store T-Mobile marketing materials only described text messaging as an optional service for an additional monthly fee.

Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman, said: "This ruling is a big win for T-Mobile customers and we're looking forward to presenting our case to the court. We don't believe either option is tenable for the company's 27 million subscribers. It is noteworthy that other carriers have found a way to allow customers to disable this function."

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