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T-Mobile to refund customers $90M in settlement

By Danielle Haynes
T-Mobiled agreed to a $90 million settlement in a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission over unauthorized charges. File Photo by Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI
T-Mobiled agreed to a $90 million settlement in a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission over unauthorized charges. File Photo by Roger L. Wollenberg/UPI | License Photo

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- T-Mobile on Friday agreed to pay more than $90 million after settling a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission for adding unauthorized charges to customers' bills.

The FTC sued T-Mobile for "cramming" unauthorized third-party charges to customers' bills, and the customers may not even have realized it.

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Some $67.5 million of the money will go directly back to the customers who were billed for the charges since Jan 1, 2010. The mobile company will either pay direct refunds or offer forgiveness on future bills.

Most of the charges were monthly fees for things like horoscopes, sports scores or celebrity gossip through text message. The FTC said T-Mobile benefited from these charges because the company took a cut of up to 40 percent for each.

"Mobile cramming is an issue that has affected millions of American consumers," said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, "and I'm pleased that this settlement will put money back in the hands of affected T-Mobile customers.

"Consumers should be able to trust that their mobile phone bills reflect the charges they authorized and nothing more," she said.

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The settlement comes two months after AT&T agreed to pay $105 million in a cramming lawsuit from the FTC.

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