AT&T is paying $60 million to settle with the Federal Trade Commission after allegedly misleading customers with its "unlimited" data plans.
The FTC announced this settlement Tuesday after in 2014 suing AT&T, saying the company failed to "adequately disclose" to those who signed up for its unlimited data plans that their data speeds would be throttled if they used a certain amount in a billing cycle.
Under the settlement, AT&T is "prohibited from making any representation about the speed or amount of its mobile data, including that it is 'unlimited,' without disclosing any material restrictions on the speed or amount of data," the FTC said Tuesday. The $60 million will be put into a fund used to provide partial refunds to customers who signed up for unlimited data plans prior to 2011.
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AT&T was previously hit with a $100 million Federal Communications Commission fine for allegedly misleading customers about its unlimited data plans, The Verge reports, with the FCC Enforcement Bureau's chief saying at the time, "unlimited means unlimited."
Similarly, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Andrew Smith said Tuesday, "AT&T promised unlimited data - without qualification- and failed to deliver on that promise." AT&T in a statement to The Verge said that "even though it has been years since we applied this network management tool in the way described by the FTC, we believe this is in the best interests of consumers."
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