Class action accuses Sprint Nextel of unauthorized content charges: Lawsuit similar to one filed against Alltel earlier this year

A new class-action lawsuit accuses Sprint Nextel Corp. of charging subscribers for mobile content not authorized by subscribers.
The lawsuit, virtually identical to one filed against Alltel Wireless in March and currently pending in Illinois federal court, alleges unauthorized charges on consumers’ monthly bills are the result of collaboration between wireless carriers and aggregators that represent premium mobile content providers.
“Sprint has for years been systematically, repeatedly and without authorization, billing its customers for purchases of products and services not agreed to by those customers,” stated the lawsuit that began in state court before being moved to federal court in Kansas. “Sprint and third-party service providers have, on information and belief, profited significantly through this practice.”
The lawsuit claims Sprint Nextel is anything but oblivious to allegedly inappropriate charges to subscribers.
“Sprint’s conduct is by no means accidental,” the lawsuit stated. “As previously alleged, it knows that many of its cellular telephone customers dispute the mobile content provider’s claim that such customer consented to be charged for their mobile content services. Sprint further knows that it cannot authenticate such customer’s authority to be billed for such mobile content charges. In light of its knowledge of these facts, Sprint’s decision to continue to charge its customers for mobile content without taking steps to authenticate the representations of the mobile content providers that the customer’s authority to be charged was obtained constitutes a deliberate and willful scheme to cheat large numbers of people out of small amounts of money.”
Sprint Nextel said it adheres to standard industry practices.
“We haven’t had an opportunity to fully review the complaint; however, we adhere to the Mobile Marketing Association guidelines which emphasize the need for subscriber consent before third-party content is delivered to a handset,” said Matthew Sullivan, a Sprint Nextel spokesman.
The Federal Trade Commission has begun to closely monitor mobile marketing trends.