RSSVerizon Wireless sued for game show contests
By Tim Conneally | Published March 27, 2008, 11:36 AM
The suit that began in early summer against Verizon Wireless for charging customers a premium for entry into TV promotional contests has entered the courts.
The class action suit states that Verizon Wireless' 99 cent charge to enter contests related to TV shows such as "Deal or No Deal," and "Sole Survivor" via text message are tantamount to illegal gambling. While the games were free to enter online, since nothing was given in exchange for the 99 cent text message entrance fee, the contest violated what is known as the Standard Lottery Rule.
That "rule" for promotions departments to uphold is that an illegal lottery contains three things: prize, chance, and consideration. By removing any of these factors, the contest becomes legal again.
This is the reason many promotional contests have "No Purchase Necessary" disclaimers.
In contract law, "consideration" is something of value that is either a detriment incurred by the person making the promise or a benefit to the other. In this case, the 99 cent fee given to Verizon Wireless was the consideration. Due to the standard cost of text messaging ranging from 5 to 20 cents, anything above that is considered a premium.
Verizon Wireless' service contracts actually have a clause banning class arbitration, but the Plaintiffs' legal representation holds that contracts are not involved in the case, rendering the ban unenforceable.
Im sorry but if the tv says .99cents per message dont use the service. It is simple as that. They need to be going after Thumbplay, MQube and all of those other services on the Internet that are misleading. You click on an add enter your mobile number you are automatically entered into a 9.99 or 19.99 subscribtion fee.
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My only question is why would someone waste money on Deal or No Deal and Sole survivor. Is sole Survivor about your shoes?
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I did for deal or no deal because they had the lucky case contest didn't know they did have one for survivor but wouldn't do it for that show even if knew.
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Maybe they threw in that clause because they knew they might be subject to those kind of lawsuits at some point in the future because maybe they know that their services aren't as good as they make everyone seem to think they are.
As for the pending class action lawsuit even though I am not a verizon customer/subscriber thankfully, maybe we all should be able to start a class action lawsuit against our own carriers for the same thing. But is it really the carriers that people should be going after? The $0.99 is the game show contests rules/regulations is it not? I have done some of those contests as mentioned above deal or no deal and such and I don't agree with the $0.99 per text fee which is ridiculous. Why don't the standard rates and or fees of each carrier apply? The game show's contests are paid for fully by the shows sponsors or networks.
Maybe we should all go after each of our own carriers for early termination fees when all that is done when someone's service gets shut off is the flick of a switch per say well more like a click of the computer. Granted maybe there is some paperwork involved but I seriously doubt it costs $175 + to get all that done when it's a matter of seconds that your service is shut off if you get to the point of getting your service shut off.
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"Verizon Wireless' service contracts actually have a clause banning class arbitration"
wow.
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Yet Verizon Wireless has been subject to at least a few class action lawsuits already, a few of which they lost and had to pay up (in one form or another).
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