FTC Sues AT&T Over Throttling of ‘Unlimited’ Data Plans

The Federal Trade Commission has come down on wireless carrier AT&T for allegedly misleading “millions” of smartphone users with their “unlimited” data plans.

BGR:

In a complaint filed in a federal court on Tuesday, the FTC alleged that AT&T has been misleading its own subscribers “by charging them for ‘unlimited’ data plans while reducing their data speeds, in some cases by nearly 90 percent.”

The FTC alleges that AT&T didn’t do enough to inform customers that their “unlimited” data plans would be throttled down to lower speeds if they exceeded a certain data limit. The Commission charges that AT&T should have done more to let consumers know that “unlimited” means you won’t face overage charges for exceeding a set data limit, not that you get unlimited 4G LTE data every month.

“AT&T promised its customers ‘unlimited’ data, and in many instances, it has failed to deliver on that promise,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. “The issue here is simple: ‘unlimited’ means unlimited.”

The FTC’s full press release regarding the complaint can be read in full here.

Chris Hauk

Chris is a Senior Editor at Mactrast. He lives somewhere in the deep Southern part of America, and yes, he has to pump in both sunshine and the Internet.