Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Court says carriers must follow state consumer protection laws

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 09 Dec 2002 17:07:55 -0500

Court says carriers must follow state consumer protection laws
December 09 13:08:00, 2002

http://www.rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=6219

DALLAS—Wireless carriers have to follow state consumer protection and contract laws or
face liability in state courts, according to a
decision made by the Dallas Court of Appeals last week.

Plaintiffs in the Bryceland vs. AT&T Wireless case, which began in 1999, charge AT&T
Wireless Services Inc. with misrepresenting the
quality of its services, intentionally overbooking its network and failing to credit
customers for dropped calls. AT&T Wireless argued
that consumers could not sue in state courts for violation of state contract and consumer
protection laws, but the Court of Appeals
disagreed and remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings.

“The Federal Communications Act does not protect cell phone companies from being held to
the same consumer protection and state
contract laws that govern all companies,” said Rob Scott, counsel for the plaintiffs. “Now
these companies will be held responsible for
false advertising and other deceptive trade practices.”

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