Class Action Regarding "Leased Receiver" Fees Allowed to Proceed

[Scott Greczkowski]

Court denies DirecTV's Motion to Compel Arbitration thereby allowing putative class action that alleges DirecTV improperly assessed "Leased Receiver" fees and collected excessive "taxes" to move forward.



Atlanta, GA (
PRWEB

) October 31, 2009 -- In an order dated October 28, 2009, United States District Court Judge Charles A. Pannell, Jr. denied a motion by DirecTV to compel arbitration in the case of Jones v. DirecTV, Inc. (Case Number 1:09-CV-1036-CAP). The class action lawsuit claims that DirecTV and The DirecTV Group, which are headquartered in El Segundo, California, have improperly assessed monthly "Leased Receiver" fees upon customers who obtained their receiver from an authorized DirecTV dealer. Judge Pannell also denied DirecTV's motion to stay the case, thereby allowing the plaintiffs to proceed with discovery.

The lawsuit has been pursued on behalf of named plaintiff Andrea Jones, one of DirecTV's over 18 million subscribers. According to the terms of DirecTV's contract with customers such as Ms. Jones, a lease fee in the amount of $4.99 per month is assessed for each DirecTV receiver being used by the customer. According to the contract, however, customers are supposed to receive a $4.99 monthly credit to their account for the first (primary) receiver. Ms. Jones' lawsuit alleges that DirecTV has failed to provide the monthly credit according to the terms of the contract.

In addition, the Complaint alleges that DirecTV also improperly charged its customers sales tax on these improper "Leased Receiver" fees. The suit claims that DirecTV also collects excessive amounts of sales tax on the leasing fees by charging customers for taxes on the credited amount and collecting a greater percentage rate of tax than allowed under state law. The plaintiffs allege that DirecTV is liable for all damages that have resulted from its conduct. Moreover, the Complaint seeks injunctive relief to prevent DirecTV from continuing to assess these improper charges.

Read the rest at
Class Action Lawsuit Against DirecTV Regarding "Leased Receiver" Fees Allowed to Proceed

[azgreg]

I smell a PPV coupon in my future

[DishSubLA]

So, this is why Dish calls it's "leased fee" charged to box OWNERS as "Additional Access Fee," or something like that. Dish has actually changed the name a few times. Gee, you would have thought Direc TV legal would have thought of Charlie's clever trick, too. Score one for Dish's legal department. But then again, Charlie does think like no other. Seriously, I hate those box charges.

[Jimbo]

So, this is why Dish calls it's "leased fee" charged to box OWNERS as "Additional Access Fee," or something like that. Dish has actually changed the name a few times. Gee, you would have thought Direc TV legal would have thought of Charlie's clever trick, too. Score one for Dish's legal department. But then again, Charlie does think like no other. Seriously, I hate those box charges.

Direct got this idea from DISH ....
D* never use to do ANY LEASE until after they saw how DISH was doing with it.

[stonecold]

DTV has 3 fees all the same price and basically all the same thing
all 5 dollars
Additional Recvier fee - addtional box past your first "primary" box. Additional reciver fee means that the reciever is owned and not leased.

Lease reciver fee - same as above just for leased boxes

Primary Leased reciever fee - Lease fee for your 1st and aka "primary" box. DTV system charges this but then Credits it on the same bill. so there is 0 charge when all said in done.

[Hemi 6.1]

Direct got this idea from DISH ....
D* never use to do ANY LEASE until after they saw how DISH was doing with it.

Directv is taking lessons on how to run a business from E*?
Thats a new one!
Look out soon HD Extra pack will be included with HD Access. OH NO!

[aa9vi]

Directv is taking lessons on how to run a business from E*?
Thats a new one!

Yes, and that's the reason for this whole Versus tiering fiasco.

[Hemi 6.1]

Yes, and that's the reason for this whole Versus tiering fiasco.

Yea OK , Thats why E* has Verses and D* doesn't.
Its E* fault that D* is Getting sued, I forgot!

[Ken S]

DTV has 3 fees all the same price and basically all the same thing
all 5 dollars
Additional Recvier fee - addtional box past your first "primary" box. Additional reciver fee means that the reciever is owned and not leased.

Lease reciver fee - same as above just for leased boxes

Primary Leased reciever fee - Lease fee for your 1st and aka "primary" box. DTV system charges this but then Credits it on the same bill. so there is 0 charge when all said in done.

The issue is under the taxation laws in different states what you call something is very important. For example, a lease may be taxed at a higher rate than a service fee in one district. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of taxing districts in the United States. Since DirecTV does business in close to all of them...and has property (leased receivers) in them it is up to DirecTV to properly collect, report and remit those taxes.

[stonecold]

Yes but those taxes are automatically returned via credit.

Example from my own bill

5.00 Primary Lease reciever ( in my case hr22)
State Sales tax - .30 ( state rate of 6%)

total of 5.30 charge in the billing line item .

Credit of 5.00 + -.30

We go by the state and local laws. for charging taxes.

we on the bill dont show the credit for the taxes since it auto taxen out.

Sounds like she was some old lady who had an old grandfathered plan usually old primestar accounts where customers are still paying for recivers under the old primestar rates