WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, released the following statement after the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Attorneys General of all 50 states and the District of Columbia announced that they had reached a settlement with AT&T over the billing practice known as cramming.

“Today’s wireless cramming settlement speaks volumes about the diligent and determined work of the FTC, FCC, and Attorneys General around the country to combat billing fraud on consumers’ phone bills, and I congratulate them on this effort. As my recent Senate Commerce Committee investigation demonstrated, despite years of industry assurances that wireless cramming was a ‘de minimis’ problem, bogus charges on wireless bills have been widespread and have caused consumers substantial harm. Self-regulation has proved ineffective at protecting consumers against both landline and wireless cramming, and I urge the enforcement community to remain vigilant as third-party wireless billing practices continue to evolve.”

At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing in July 2014, Rockefeller released a staff report finding that third-party wireless billing is a billion dollar industry that has cost consumers hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorized charges on their wireless bills while yielding tremendous revenues for major wireless carriers.

Rockefeller launched the Committee’s inquiry into wireless cramming after the Committee’s 2010-2011 landline cramming investigation found that widespread cramming had occurred on consumers’ landline phone bills and cost consumers billions. Since then, despite public assurances from industry that its self-regulatory system is effective at protecting consumers from unauthorized third-party charges on their phone bills, cramming on wireless phone bills continued.

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