Verizon Wireless has settled out of court in a class action lawsuit that dates all the way back to 2002, agreeing to pay $64 million to customers who say they were charged for call that should have been free. The settlement was filed this week, but still needs to be approved.
Between 2002 and 2006, Verizon Wireless apparently billed customers making in-network calls on its Family SharePlan despite advertising those call as free. The company hasn’t officially admitted it did anything wrong, though it did just settle out of court suggesting that it wanted to end all litigation. Then again, Verizon may be getting off easy at $64 million; the total cost to customers is estimated at $156 million.
Once the settlement is approved, Verizon will pay the full $64.2 million, though $19.26 million of that is going to the lawyers who argued the case. The rest of it will be handed out to Verizon Wireless customer between 2002 and 2006 in the form of refunds and credits.