WILKES-BARRE — Attorney General Michelle Henry this week revealed a $10.25 million, 50-state settlement with major mobile device service carriers about allegedly misleading advertising practices, such as claims of unlimited data plans and free phones.
AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Cricket, and T-Mobile have agreed to be truthful in future advertising, disclose all associated fees and contracts, and properly train customer service staff, as part of the settlement reached with multiple states.
As part of the settlement, Pennsylvania will receive over $260,000 in costs and fees.
AG Henry stated, "The demand for mobile devices is high, and Pennsylvanians deserve accurate information and the truth about costs when making important budget decisions. For too long, major carriers have been advertising devices as free when they actually have significant costs for the consumer."
The settlements address misrepresentations in advertisements related to unlimited data plans, free phone offers, incentives to switch wireless networks, and wireless carrier plan comparisons.
According to the AG, the carriers allegedly failed to clearly disclose the limitations, conditions, and differences in these offers.
The Assurance of Voluntary Compliance settlement will require the wireless carriers, among other things, to:
• Ensure that all future advertisements and representations are truthful, accurate, and not deceptive.
• Only refer to unlimited mobile data plans where there are no numerical limits on the data during a billing cycle, and clearly disclose any data speed restrictions and their triggers.
• Only offer to pay for consumers to switch carriers if they clearly disclose fees, amounts, payment form and schedule, and consumer requirements.
• Only offer free wireless devices or services if they clearly disclose all consumer requirements.
• Clarify to consumers when offering device leasing that they will be entering a lease agreement.
• Only claim that a consumer will save money by purchasing its products or services if they have a reasonable basis to do so and clearly disclose any material differences in prices.
• Appoint a dedicated employee to address consumer complaints and work with attorneys general.
• Ensure that customer service representatives comply with the terms and implement a program to enforce compliance.
Lawsuits were submitted to carrier companies including AT&T Mobility LLC, Cricket Wireless LLC, T-Mobile USA Inc., and Cellco Partnership, also known as Verizon Wireless and TracFone Wireless Inc.
Rep. Meuser becomes a co-sponsor Equal Representation Act
U.S. Representative Dan Meuser, from Dallas and a member of the Republican party, recently teamed up to support H.R. 7109, which is called the Equal Representation Act. This act aims to ensure that only American citizens are taken into account when deciding the population of congressional districts and the Electoral College map, which is used to determine the winner of presidential elections.
Meuser stated that this legislation was prompted by a video showing a Democratic Congresswoman publicly advocating for increased illegal immigration to her congressional district in order to have more people for redistricting purposes.
At present, Meuser mentioned that illegal immigrants are included in the count for the allocation of congressional districts, affecting Electoral College votes. He noted that areas inflated by illegal immigrants gain excessive political power.
Meuser explained that in places like California, the presence of millions of undocumented residents results in the state securing added congressional seats and Electoral College votes beyond what its citizen population alone would justify.
Based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Meuser highlighted that non-citizens make up about 6.7% of the nation’s 333 million person population. He emphasized that including them in the allocation of congressional districts not only distorts representation in Congress but also undermines the constitutional principle of “one person, one vote.”
Meuser expressed that allowing illegal immigrants to be counted in the census for congressional representation is not acceptable. He criticized Democrats for persisting in welcoming illegal immigrants to 'protect' their congressional seats, while crime rises in large cities and many flee. He argued that this incentivizes Democrats to keep the border open for political gain. Meuser stressed that the legislation is common sense, as it prioritizes legal citizens when determining congressional districts and the Electoral College map.
Meuser stated that H.R. 7109 passed the House by a vote of 206-202 and was forwarded to the Senate for further review.
Culver's bill to safeguard domestic animals and Pennsylvania's food supply is now a law
A bill presented by Senator Lynda Schlegel Culver, who represents the 27th district and is a member of the Republican party, was recently signed into law. This law aims to safeguard domestic animals and the food supply from dangerous transmissible diseases.
Culver, from Northumberland, expressed gratitude for the Governor signing this bill into law, viewing it as a significant step in securing the future of the livestock industry in Pennsylvania.
Culver’s Senate Bill 979, known as Act 15 of 2024, has been enacted. This law grants the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture the power to mandate that retailers display information about dangerous transmittable diseases at locations where domestic animals and feed are available to the public.
“Spreading information is very important for bio-security, and it's one of the best ways to try to reduce the spread of diseases,” Culver said. “This law will let the Department of Agriculture share important information with small livestock operations that may not know about an outbreak nearby.”
The law was passed at a good time because there is avian influenza spreading in cattle across the nation. At this time, there have been no reports of spread in Pennsylvania.
Sens. Casey, Heinrich are leading the effort to get more money for border security
U.S. Senators Bob Casey, D-Scranton, and Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico, this week led 15 of their colleagues in a letter to Senate Appropriators urging them to give the United States the resources to fight the fentanyl crisis by continuing strong funding for border security and drug interdiction initiatives.
In their letter, the Senators are asking for money for U.S. Customs and Border Protection to hire more agents and buy more surveillance technology for official ports of entry along the southern border. This is where illegal drugs are brought in and firearms and money are trafficked out of the U.S. for use by Mexican cartels.
The Senators also want more money for U.S. law enforcement to investigate trafficking crimes and the groups, including Mexican cartels, causing the fentanyl crisis in the United States.
“We want you to continue giving money to make sure that law enforcement officers at our Nation’s borders are ready to fight the flow of fentanyl and other illegal drugs,” the Senators wrote. “We also want you to give strong funding to support the law enforcement agencies that are investigating smuggling and trafficking crimes and working to stop the criminal networks that threaten our country and our communities.”
Sen. Casey has recently worked to combat the fentanyl crisis by securing the southern border.
With Senator Kelly (D-AZ), he introduced the Stop Fentanyl at the Border Act and pushed President Biden to ask for more border security funding in his FY25 government spending request to Congress.
Senator Heinrich has gotten several new investments to fight the opioid epidemic and protect communities from illegal fentanyl, while also helping those dealing with addiction.
Most recently, as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Heinrich got a lot of federal funding to fight the fentanyl crisis, as well as language in reports to create a full fentanyl tracking system and to remove obstacles to getting medications for opioid use disorder.
