Verizon will pay $64 million to settle claims over Family Plan over-billing

Verizon will pay up to $64.3 million in cash and phone credits to resolve a long-running class action lawsuit that accuses the phone giant of cheating subscribers to its Family SharePlan, which offered a way for members to share minutes and call each other for free.

According to a proposed settlement filed in New Jersey, Verizon subscribers who belonged to a family plan between 2001 and 2006 will begin receiving notifications once the judge approves the preliminary arrangement. The underlying lawsuit claims that Verizon over-billed plan members in one of two ways: 1) by charging plan members for “in-network” minutes that were supposed to be free; 2) by charging the addition phones included in the Family SharePlan 45 cents a minute for exceeding an allotted monthly allowance, rather than the 25 cents that was charged to the primary phone in the plan. The settlement calls for Verizon to pay $37.5 million into a fund that will be distributed as cash or phone bill credits to both groups. It also calls for the company to supply members of the “in-network” group with PIN numbers that can be used for domestic or international calls, and are valued at $27.5 million dollars under the deal.