WorldCom Inc. has agreed to pay as much as $88 million to settle a class- action lawsuit over the long-distance company's practice of charging some customers substantially higher rates for calls without their knowledge.
The cash settlement, approved Friday by both sides, is one of the largest involving a consumer telecommunications dispute, and it far exceeds the typical penalties paid by phone companies disciplined by federal or state regulators.
WorldCom denied any wrongdoing in the case. However, the company agreed to pay refunds to millions of customers of its MCI long-distance subsidiary who were unilaterally designated as "casual callers" and billed higher, nonsubscriber prices Phone Case and surcharges between February 1996 and October 2000.
More than 5 million MCI customers will be notified of the settlement, and many of them are expected to qualify for compensation, according to Daniel Girard, one of the attorneys who brought the case against MCI.
WorldCom, through its MCI unit, is the nation's second-largest long- distance carrier behind AT&T Corp. A spokesman for the phone company, based in Clinton, Miss., said WorldCom believes the practices at the heart of the I4 Triple Frame case are lawful, but that the company "decided to resolve the matter promptly rather than press forward with what likely would be protracted and resource- draining litigation."
The settlement involves a case ipad Cartoon Protector film filed in late 1999 in southern Illinois federal court to consolidate several individual suits. The lawsuit accused MCI of charging consumers inflated rates and surcharges if they left or were removed from its traditional subscription rate plans.
Girard said customers often unwittingly paid high "casual calling" prices in cases where MCI made mistakes.
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