back to article AT&T to fork out less than two days' profit in bogus bill charge flap

AT&T has been ordered to cough up $105m by US trade watchdog the FTC after allowing miscreants to whack bogus charges on Americans' cellphone bills. The commission said the telco giant would be on the hook for $80m in refunds to customers, and an additional $25m in fines and penalties to settle claims that it allowed third …

  1. Fihart

    Telcos a nasty cartel.

    The sort of plain dishonesty and contempt for user displayed by these telcos should be dealt with by jailing the directors for fraud. Fines are just a levy on shareholders and barely touch the perpetrators.

    I'm still furious that T-Mob raised PAYG text price by 20% when the actual cost of a text is so miniscule it apparently cannot be calculated.

  2. Cubical Drone

    Article doesn't say, but why would I not be surprised to find that the fine is less than the amount of money that they made via this practice.

    I would love it if someone found away to apply the RICO act to some of this crap so that they would forfeit all the money they made via this practice on top of any fine, and open the door to treble damages in civil law suits to boot.

    As for punishing the share holders, maybe they should start taking a little bit of a closer look at the character of the company they are investing in. I would have as much sympathy for them as I would for an investor in a fund that pays 12% a year no matter how the markets perform, then is surprised that it is a Ponzi scheme.

    Yeah, I know, it will never happen, but one can dream.

    1. Mark 85

      I know, we can dream. But I'm of the belief that the stock market (worldwide, not just the US) is a Ponzi scheme at this point. All us little guys with our money in pension funds and IRA's are riding along the coattails of the really big money/market manipulators.

    2. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: Cubical Drone

      "I not be surprised to find that the fine is less than the amount of money that they made via this practice."

      The FCC has said it runs into hundreds of millions of dollars: $108m in one year alone.

      C.

  3. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

    Fines

    Should be levied as a % of turnover

  4. Gannettt

    Bogus charges

    Is this any more or less offensive than the seemingly made-up charges AT&T themselves slap on your bill every month? See the article below for a mind-boggling list of 'junk fees' they add to your bill. I've had a look at my past few months' bills, and the fees seem to come and go.

    http://stopthecap.com/2014/06/12/att-piles-on-u-verse-junk-fees-say-hello-to-the-24%C2%A2-regulatory-video-cost-recovery-charge/

    1. Tom 35

      Re: Bogus charges

      Bell Canada started charging a fee every month if you wanted a touch tone phone (optional at the time) but still charge it (no longer an option to use rotary dial) some 40 years later. Phone companies have no shame at all.

      1. FuzzyTheBear
        Pint

        Re: Bogus charges

        I'm in Laval Quebec , a Bell customer and you guessed it .. i do have a rotary phone dial in a super solid eternal Contempra by Northern Telecom , yes the one with the real bells :) . Much to my surprise it's still fully supported and works like a champ. God bless the rotary dial and it's full support ! Thanks Bell .. apart from that .. they suck , way too high in prices and service is gone down the drain with their call centers now somewhere else on the planet,

        Cheers

  5. dan1980

    The phrase that really needs to be dusted off in these cases is "punitive damages".

    Fines that amount to simply replaying what has been deceitfully taken are just not enough as they are no deterrent at all.

    Any time these companies are found out and made to pay up, they come out more-or-less even but when they get away with it, they win. This happens in other areas too, like banks and their various charges and penalties and insurance companies not paying out or paying out fractions of what they should.

    Simply paying/repaying what they should is not a penalty and thus not a deterrent.

    It's like saying that if someones is found guilty of stealing a car, their 'punishment' is to return the car or pay for it. That's ridiculous, clearly!

    Now, what AT&T have done is not criminal so you can't go sending them to jail, but you still need to punish them so that the punishment acts as a deterrent to others and this is precisely where punitive damages come in.

    The very purpose of such damages is to fine the company sufficiently so that it cannot be seen as a cost of doing business and thus actually acts as a deterrent.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Funny how when a comapny steals from you it's somehow not theft, isn't it?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Funny how when a comapny steals from you it's somehow not theft, isn't it?"

    And when a company does well the people at the top are individually responsible and therefore get individual megabonuses on top of their already admirable "executive compensation" packages,.

    But when something big goes wrong, suddenly "the company" (rather than any individuals) is responsible. And consequently the customers end up paying for it. Not the individuals at the top who were just as responsible for the bad behaviour as they were for the good.

    Heads they win, tails we lose.

  7. Tom 13

    Operating Income =\= Profit

    Yes, the fine is atrociously inadequate. That doesn't mean El Reg should stoop to the same levels as the telco almost monopoly.

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