In February, circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown ruled that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) could pursue enforcement of AT&T’s throttling practices over their “unlimited” data plans. The FTC has been pursuing this case since 2014. Last week, another court ruled against AT&T in another case which would allow California residents to free themselves of the draconian single-person arbitration cases that allow AT&T to really use their big telecom resources to bully consumers. AT&T’s practice of throttling consumers under their “unlimited data” plans are the source of consumer anger in this case as well. Arstechnica explains:
The decision comes two years after the same judge decided that customers could only have their complaints heard individually in arbitration instead of in a class-action lawsuit.
The 2016 ruling in AT&T's favor was affirmed by a federal appeals court. But the customers subsequently filed a motion to reconsider the arbitration decision, saying that an April 2017 decision by the California Supreme Court "constitutes a change in law occurring after the Court‟s arbitration order," Judge Edward Chen of US District Court for the Northern District of California said in the new ruling issued last week.
The state Supreme Court "held that an arbitration agreement that waives the right to seek the statutory remedy of public injunctive relief in any forum is contrary to California public policy and therefore unenforceable," Chen wrote.
AT&T told Arstechnica they would be appealing the decision.