AT & T Mobility Case Paper

1103 Words5 Pages

Preface Information on AT&T Mobility LLC AT&T Mobility is the second largest wireless telecommunications provider in the United States and Puerto Rico, right being Verizon Wireless. It provides wireless connections to all of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands through cellphones, landlines, Internet and U-verse. The company has over 128.6 million subscribers in the United States alone and has its headquarters in Brookhaven, Georgia. AT&T Mobility was founded 16 years ago and formerly called Cingular Wireless LLC until its named changed from the merger in 2007. Cingular Wireless was a combined company that included SBC Communications and BellSouth working together as one communication provider that started in 2000. …show more content…

Concepcion is Vincent Concepcion while the defendant is AT&T Mobility LLC. The issue began when AT&T put out an advertisement that if you sign up for their services you will receive a free phone. When Concepcion decided to partake in this advertisement, he was charged the new subscriber sales tax on the retail value of the free phone. Not knowing of this extra tax he would be charged, Concepcion and members of a class filed a suit against AT&T for deceptive advertising.
They filed a class action lawsuit against AT&T, which AT&T then moved to compel arbitration, based on the arbitration clause contained within their contract of service, since the customers were to sign a contract that agreed to these taxes. The California Federal District Court, where this claim was made, denied AT&T’s motion to compel arbitration under Concepcion’s contract.
The U.S. Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit affirmed this decision. They agreed that the arbitration clause was inacceptable and unenforceable under California law and that the Federal Arbitration Act did not specifically preempt California law from governing unethical acts like this case. Because of this, AT&T appealed to the Supreme Court.
The legal issue in question is whether or not the Federal Arbitration Act preempts states from practicing the implementation of an arbitration agreement on the availability of class-wide arbitration