AT&T, Sprint, and WorldCom, the nation’s top-three long-distance companies, are being sued for false advertising in the marketing of their respective long-distance services both in direct response ads and telemarketing calls.
The nearly identical lawsuits were filed last Thursday by the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri and New Jersey.
The three companies declined comment on the case.
Five of the lawsuits were filed by California against WorldCom, formerly known as MCI Communications Inc. The state is seeking at least $20 million in civil penalties and consumer refunds.
Connecticut, Minnesota, Missouri and New Jersey, are separately seeking unspecified civil penalties and consumer refunds.Connecticut is also suing AT&T and Sprint for unspecified penalties and refunds while Idaho and Maine each seek unspecified penalties and refunds from AT&T while Illinois is seeking at least $100,000 in penalties and refunds from Sprint.
The suits allege that:
* WorldCom failed to disclose all the charges and restrictions relating to its “5 Cents Everyday Plan.”
* AT&T similarly failed to completely disclose all charges and restrictions involved in its “One Rate Seven Cents Plan.”
* Sprint failed to disclose all charges and restrictions involved for its “Sprint 1000 Nights,” “Sprint 1000 Weekends,” “Sprint Sense Any Time” and “Spring Nickel Nights” programs
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