Litigation continues: Sprint Nextel gets another class action

Sprint Nextel Corp. has been hit with a new class-action lawsuit alleging subscribers were billed for text messaging they did not authorize, litigation that is becoming increasingly common in the mobile-phone industry.
“Rather than offer its customers a means to decline receipt of SMS messages, services and content – either in advance or after the fact – Sprint requires customers to pay SMS charges because Sprint values the charges as a source of revenue,” stated the lawsuit filed in federal court in Illinois. “Sprint has even charged class members for unsolicited Sprint advertisements sent via SMS.”
Sprint Nextel declined to comment on the suit, but company spokesman Matthew Sullivan said the No. 3 cellular carrier follows guidelines of the Mobile Marketing Association. Those guidelines address third-party content providers.
“Also, if a customer contacts us about third-party content charges occurring without consent, we will conduct an investigation,” said Sullivan. “If the content provider charged the customer without securing an opt-in from the customer, we’ll report the provider to the MMA and waive the charges.”
It is not the first time Sprint Nextel has faced allegations of unauthorized charges in a lawsuit. A similar class action lodged against Sprint Nextel was moved to a federal court in Kansas earlier this month.
Verizon Wireless, Alltel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. also face federal class action suits that claim the wireless carriers are collecting fees for content that consumers have not signed up for. The same complaint is at the core of a class-action lawsuit facing major mobile-phone carriers and MVNOs in a Mississippi federal court.