The office of the New York Attorney General has announced that it has reached an agreement with telecom giant AT&T Mobility regarding the phone company's misleading and deceptive advertising rebate offers. The agreement requires AT&T to provide more than $2.63 million to consumers who received rebate cards from AT&T in fulfillment of its rebate offers on cellular phones and other wireless equipment and services.
Since 2005, AT&T Mobility, LLC, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, has been fulfilling its rebate offers with rebate cards instead of checks. These cards were portrayed as debit cards in the amount of the rebate offer. However, the cards were not redeemable for cash, could not be used for cash withdrawals and expired 120 days from issuance.
The Attorney General's Office found that AT&T failed to adequately disclose the card's conditions and limitations in its marketing materials for the promotion. AT&T also deceived consumers with offers for "free" products when, in fact, consumers had to pay the full price up-front and then submit a mail-in rebate form from which they were sent the aforementioned rebate card with its accompanying limitations.
In addition to the $2.63 million to consumers, the Attorney General's settlement requires AT&T to clearly disclose all the terms, conditions and limitations of any rebate offers and cease referring to the cards used to fulfill the rebate offers as "debit cards" in its advertising unless the cards are redeemable for cash. The agreement also requires AT&T to clearly disclose any conditions in marketing and advertising materials.
MARCH-10-09: Attorney General Cuomo Obtains a $2.63M Settlement with AT&T [OAG NY: ATTORNEY GENERAL CUOMO OBTAINS $2.63M AGREEMENT WITH AT&T]
