Verizon Refunds for Mis-identified Spam?

As part of a proposed settlement, Verizon is proposing to issue refunds to customers who had legitimate personal or business email blocked by the company's spam filters.

As part of a possible settlement to a class-action lawsuit, Verizon Communications has proposed issuing refunds to customers who had legitimate business or personal email wrongly flagged by the company’s email spam filters.

The proposed settlement, if approved, would cover business and residential customers who had broadband or dial-up service from Verizon during the period from October 1, 2004, to May 31, 2005. Customers could potentially receive refunds up up to $28 ($3.50 per month) plus any cancellation fees charged to them as a result off service drops due to missing email. The deadline for filing claims is August 9, 2006; customers who wish to be excluded from the suit must opt out by May 19, 2006.

The class action lawsuit asserts Verizon arbitrary blocked email messages originating from particular overseas Internet providers (mostly in Europe and Asia) without regard to the legitimacy of messages from those sites. The suit also asserts Verizon failed to respond to customer complaints about unreliable email delivery. Verizon has maintained their spam filtering never targeted specific regions.