T-Mobile USA facing lawsuit over text marketing block

T-Mobile USA is the target of a lawsuit filed by mobile marketing solutions firm EZ Texting, which alleges the operator began blocking its short code services over EZ Texting's partnership with WeedMaps.com, a web resource providing information on the location of legal medicinal marijuana dispensaries. According to the suit, filed last week with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, T-Mobile USA instituted a block on EZ Texting's group SMS services on Sept. 10 because it "did not approve" of the company's relationship with WeedMaps.com--although EZ Texting terminated the partnership, it claims T-Mobile USA continues to block its short code, stating it will be put out of business if the carrier does not restore its service. T-Mobile USA did not respond to a request for comment prior to press time.

Digital rights organization Public Knowledge--which in 2007 filed a still-open Federal Communications Commission petition calling for lawmakers to extend to texting the same kind of non-discrimination laws applied to voice communications--said it will file a copy of the EZ Texting lawsuit with the FCC. "This case is yet another example of a totally arbitrary decision by a carrier to block text message calls between consumers and organizations they want to communicate with," said Public Knowledge president and co-founder Gigi B. Sohn in a prepared statement. "EZ Texting and other companies should be able to focus on growing their business rather than filing lawsuits to prevent blocking."

For more on the T-Mobile USA/EZ Texting suit:
- read this release

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