AMY KLOBUCHAR
MINNESOTA
COMM1TIEES:
AGRICULTURE, NUTRlTION,
AND FORESTRY
COMMERCE. SCIENCE,
AND TRANSPORTATION
JOINT ECONOMIC COMMtTIEE
JUDICIARY
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WASHINGTON, DC 20510
March 30, 2012
The Honorable Julius Genachowski
Chairman
Federal Communications Commission
445 12'11 Street SW
Washington, DC 20554
Dear Chairman Genachowski:
I write you today regarding deceptive and fraudulent consumer billing practices that are
hurting consumer pocketbooks around the country. As you know, cramming is the practice
where a third-party adds unauthorized, misleading or deceptive charges to a consumer's phone
bill. These "mystery charges" typically end up buried in the details of a consumer's phone bill,
where they can be difficult to find. The Senate Commerce ConU11ittee, of which I am a member,
conducted an exhaustive investigation of cramming and I strongly supported your subsequent
efforts at the FCC to put rules in place to protect consumers in this area. I have also called on
major national phone companies to put an end to cramming. AT&T and Verizon recently did just
that by changing their third party billing practices for landline phone bills.
AT&T and Verizon's actions are a win for consumers but I remain concerned about
deceptive or fTaudulent billing practices on wireless consumers. More and more households are
cutting the cord on their landline phones and recent statistics show that almost one third of
Americans rely exclusively on a wireless device. I urge the FCC to take action to ensure that the
same tactics that we've seen for landline phone bills don't simply migrate over to wireless bills.
Sincerely,
A~\~
Amy Klobuchar
United States Senator
0440