T-Mobile Faces Text Messaging Lawsuit

Users forced to pay for incoming text messages they don't want are suing T-Mobile over their inability to disable text service.

T-Mobile came under fire on Wednesday from a mob of angry users who are fed up with being charged for receiving text messages they don’t want. Consumers recently filed a class action lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in Seattle, claiming that T-Mobile is breaking the law by offering no option to opt out of text service, yet continuing to charge for received messages that users cannot control.

According to RCR Wireless News, the plaintiffs in the suit allege that T-Mobile’s texting policy violates federal telecom law and Washington state’s consumer protection-unfair business practices act. “T-Mobile, the party with the superior bargaining power, has carried out a wrongful business scheme regarding text messaging to deliberately cheat a large number of consumers out of individually small sums of money,” the plaintiffs claim.

T-Mobile representatives declined to comment on the situation when approached by RCR.

Other major U.S. cell providers, including Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint, all allow users to disable text messaging on their service plans, prevented them from being charged for unwanted text messages.