I was reading this NY Times article about text messages - and what struck me less was their economics which I have written about before, but that "20 class-action lawsuits have been filed around the country against AT&T and the other carriers, alleging price-fixing for text messaging services."
Add that to
- Lawsuits against telcos for surveillance
- Lawsuits against telcos for early termination fees on mobile contracts
- Lawsuits for claims on advertised broadband services
- Lawsuits related to private property rights
- Lawsuits related to call blocking
- Lawsuits related to IP
Verizon's 10-K reports virtually no aspect of its operations is untouched:
"Our business faces a substantial amount of litigation, including patent infringement lawsuits, antitrust class actions, wage and hour class actions, personal injury claims and lawsuits relating to our advertising, sales, billing and collection practices. In addition, our wireless business also faces personal injury and consumer class action lawsuits relating to alleged health effects of wireless phones or radio frequency transmitters, and class action lawsuits that challenge marketing practices and disclosures relating to alleged adverse health effects of handheld wireless phones."
We live in a litigious society, but can you think of many industries with so much litigation? While it is easy to just blame scumbag attorneys, it seems like the industry has learned to make litigation a "cost of doing business". And it often does brazen things knowing it can negotiate its way out or it runs to Congress to grant it immunity from litigation it cannot negotiate away.
