A precedent at least has been set by a California judge who ruled in favor on Friday of a man who sued AT&T charging its practice of slowing down data violated the terms of its "unlimited data" plan.
The man, an unemployed truck driver named Matt Spaccarelli, received $850 in the small claims court suit in Simi Valley, Calif. To AT&T, which posted revenues of $31.5 billion in its most-recent quarter, that's pocket change, but Spaccarelli may soon have imitators.
According to a report by the Associated Press, about 17 million of AT&T's customers with unlimited data plan could be subject to throttling, as Spaccarelli was. Under the terms of the contract, such users can't band together in a class action lawsuit against AT&T, but they can sue them individually in small claims courts.
AT&T reps could not be reached for comment on whether the company plans to appeal the decision.
Spaccarelli's case argues that his phone is being throttled after using 1.5 GB to 2 GB of data after the billing cycle starts. However, AT&T offers 3 GB of data to subscribers for the same fee Spaccarelli is paying -- $30 per month.
AT&T's customer contract outlines that consumers who win an award in arbitration will get at least $10,000. That was the amount that Spaccarelli sued for, but the judge in the case, Russell Nadel, calculated AT&T's charge for every extra gigabyte over 3 GB ($10) across Spaccarelli's remaining 10 months in the contract.
The telecom giant began throttling data for its top 5% of users this month to manage data usage on the network. AT&T's not alone. Verizon is also throttling its top 5% and Sprint is slowing data for its top 1% of data hogs.