By Marina Lopes
WASHINGTON, July 3 (Reuters) - Accusations by a U.S. agency
that T-Mobile US Inc charged customers millions of
dollars in unauthorized charges were sensational and
exaggerated, its chief executive officer said on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commision filed a complaint
against T-Mobile, the fourth largest U.S. wireless carrier,
accusing the company of charging customers for subscriptions to
services for which they did not sign up.
"The FTC certainly did a good job of sensationalizing their
story and their news at the expense of both T-Mobile's
reputation and mine," said T-Mobile's outspoken CEO in a company
blog post.
"T-Mobile has in the past and will continue to keep our
pledge to bill customers only for what they want and what they
have purchased for as long as I am CEO of this company!" he
said.
The FTC declined to comment.
While T-Mobile carried services from third-party companies
from 2009-2013, it ceased partnerships with the companies last
November and instituted a refund program to help customers who
were charged for services they did not authorize, he said.
During that time, T-Mobile billed customers for the
subscriptions on behalf of the third-party companies, which were
responsible for getting customer authorization, Legere said.
In its complaint, the FTC said the subscriptions were for
services like horoscopes or celebrity gossip, delivered by text
message, which often cost $9.99 a month. T-Mobile received 35
percent to 40 percent of the amount charged.
The Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday it was
also investigating the matter.
In the post, Legere dismissed the complaint as "Washington
politics" and "big carrier lobbyists at their best."
(Reporting by Marina Lopes; Additional reporting by Diane
Bartz; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
© 2026 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.