Sprint sued over unauthorized mobile content fees

Not a good day for Sprint Nextel: The operator is also facing a lawsuit alleging it charged subscribers for unauthorized mobile content purchases. A class action suit was filed last month in Lyon County, Kan. by California resident James Peetz, who says that in 2007 he was charged for unauthorized text messages from content provider JokeMobi. The suit claims Sprint has failed to adopt procedures requiring customer authorization before content download charges are assessed; the lawsuit claims this "disastrous flaw is an open secret within the industry, but little understood outside of it." The suit goes on to state "Armed with only a cell phone number, the mobile content provider can simply provide that number, along with an amount to be charged, to a billing aggregator. The aggregator, in turn, instructs the relevant cellular carrier to add the charge to the bill associated with that cell phone number. The charge will then appear on the consumer's cell phone bill, often with only minimal, cryptic identifying information."

The Peetz suit was moved to federal court last week by Sprint. A carrier spokesman told The Kansas City Star that Sprint adheres to guidelines created by the Mobile Marketing Association calling for content providers to obtain approval from subscribers before they send text messages and other content. In March, rival AT&T Mobility agreed to refund thousands of Florida consumers more than $10 million following accusations the operator billed subscribers for mobile content services advertised as free. Per terms of the settlement, AT&T agreed to police its agreements with third-party advertisers to make certain consumers understand precisely what they will be charged for services like texting and ringtones, instituting new safeguards to make third-party pricing clearer and billing more transparent.

For more on the Sprint lawsuit:
-read this Kansas City Star article