AT&T is suing customers who earlier sued America's second-largest network for trying to buy T-Mobile.
Late Friday, hours after a leaked letter written by AT&T counsel appeared to undermine the entire merger, AT&T Wireless filed eight lawsuits in federal courts seeking an injunction over the "abusive actions," or arbitration claims, of customers who had joined together in a class-action case against the carrier.
Quick recap: in July, law firm Bursor & Fisher filed a lawsuit on behalf of AT&T customers who were against the proposed acquisition, citing concerns about eventual fee hikes. So far, the firm has solicited more than 1,000 names; you can read more about Bursor & Fisher's efforts at FightTheMerger.com.
The firm dangled a $10,000 reward for each customer if it wins in arbitration, based on AT&T's own Arbitration Agreement, section 2.2.2.
In one of the lawsuits AT&T filed in a district court in Massachusetts, AT&T said it is seeking to stop customer Michael Princi from pursuing his arbitration case with Bursor & Fisher.
The complaint reads, "Defendant is among the 1,000 (and counting) ATTM [AT&T Mobility] customers whom the law firm of Bursor & Fisher P.A. ('Bursor') has solicited and now claims to have recruited as part of a scheme to pressure ATTM into settling meritless claims."
"Bursor and Faruqi's [another attorney assisting Bursor & Fisher's lawsuit] scheme plainly violates the arbitration agreement between ATTM and defendant. Among other limitations on the scope of arbitration, the agreement expressly precludes 'any form of representative or class proceeding' and permits claims for injunctive relief 'only in favor of the individual party seeking relief and only to the extent necessary to provide relief warranted by that party's individual claim.'"
In other words, the promised $10,000 for winning an arbitration case doesn't apply to customers in a collective complaint.
In a Monday statement, an AT&T spokesperson said, "The bottom line here is an arbitrator has no authority to block the merger or affect the merger process in any way."
"The claims are completely without merit. We have filed suit in order to stop this abusive action," AT&T said.
But Scott Bursor, a partner at Bursor & Fisher, said the American Arbitration Association (AAA) overruled AT&T's objections and has moved forward with the arbitration process; now the federal courts must agree with the AAA's decision. The AAA declined to comment.
"AT&T's filing of these lawsuits appears to be an act of desperation, since AT&T now realizes it faces a substantial likelihood that one or more of these arbitration [cases] will indeed stop the takeover from happening," Bursor said. "But AT&T's legal arguments are frivolous. We expect the courts will reject AT&T's arguments and dismiss these cases very quickly. AT&T's desperate lawsuits will not interfere with the ongoing arbitration proceedings."
In March, AT&T announced plans to acquire T-Mobile, America's fourth-largest network, for $39 billion. It argued that the combined entity would bring high-speed 4G LTE broadband access to 97 percent of the country, rather than 80 percent without the merger. The merger would alleviate the spectrum crunch, meet America's voracious mobile broadband appetite, create jobs, and s[ir America's global competitiveness, AT&T said.
The decision, which is pending the approval of the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice, has gained the support of major tech companies like Microsoft and Facebook, but is extremely unpopular among consumer groups. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has led the charge against it.
Source:http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2391145,00.asp?kc=PCRSS05039TX1K0000762
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