T-Mobile’s Sprint acquisition has been on the hot seat for quite some time now. Even though the merger has been closed for a few years already, there are still some who are unhappy with its results. Some have even pointed out that T-Mobile continued to layoff massive employees even though they promised the merger would create jobs. And now, it looks like the subscribers of T-Mobile’s rivals have asked the court to reverse the acquisition.
As reported by Reuters, a federal judge ordered the Un-carrier to face its rivals’ subscribers on Friday. The subscribers complained that the acquisition resulted to a reduced competition in the wireless industry in the US. As a result, the subscribers were forced to pay more for wireless service.
When the acquisition was still in talks, this was something that T-Mobile was able to negotiate with Dish Network. The latter promised to replace Sprint as the fourth player, which gave the FCC reason to approve the deal.
US District Judge Thomas Durkin made a 41-page ruling supporting the claim of the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs hope to “unwind” the acquisition, create a fourth major wireless competitor, and even recover the amount they were overcharged with.
Out of the three defendants, only SoftBank Group was granted removable from the case. Meanwhile, both T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom will have to face the claims in court. The lawsuit was called “unprecedented” and their claims “speculative”.
And as the attorneys for T-Mobile said:
"If plaintiffs are unhappy with Verizon and AT&T, there is a remedy available in the highly competitive market that wireless consumers enjoy today — they should switch to T-Mobile, not sue it."
Source: PhoneArena
