Northwest, in fee dispute, sues distributor of its tickets
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Northwest Airlines Corp. sued a major distributor of its tickets on Wednesday, continuing a spat over new fees for customers and travel agents who don&#39;t buy tickets on Northwest&#39;s Web sites.
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American Airlines says it will begin charging a service fee of $5 or $10 to buy a ticket over the phone or at an airport counter, copying a similar move by Northwest Airlines.
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(InfoWorld) - Washington State's highest court on Thursday let a class-action lawsuit alleging overcharging by Cingular Wireless go forward. The state Supreme Court said a clause in Cingular's contract that prevented subscribers from starting class-action suits was unfair and sent the case back to the trial court in King County where it began. The suit was filed in 2004 on behalf of a small number of Washington customers of Cingular Wireless, now part of AT&T Inc. It said the carrier advertised free roaming in areas covered by AT&T Wireless, which was then a separate company, but hit the customers with roaming charges anyway. It also said customers were improperly charged for long distance on some calls, said Douglas Dunham, an attorney representing the plaintiffs. They alleged Cingular had overcharged customers between $1 and $40 per month. The plaintiffs' attempt to start a class-action suit was blocked by a clause in the Cingular customer contract, which said disgruntled subscribers couldn't form or join classes to sue the carrier. As a result, they didn't even get to the stage of finding out how many customers in Washington or nationally may have been affected, Dunham said. Now that they have won on appeal, the plaintiffs will pursue a class action, he said. AT&T is studying the ruling, spokesman Walt Sharp said. The carrier could appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to F. Paul Bland, staff attorney at Public Justice, a public-interest law firm in Washington, D.C., that helped argue the plaintiffs' case. In cases involving small amounts of money, consumers need to be able to pursue class actions, Bland said. "Cingular was trying to write a contract term that would make it impossible for their customers to vindicate their legal rights ... if Cingular cheated them out of small sums of money," Bland said. "Even though Cingular broke its contract and engaged in a bait-and-switch that netted it millions of dollars, almost no individuals would ever be able to take their claims forward and get justice." The decision will make it harder for other companies, such as credit card issuers, to introduce similar bans on class-action suits in Washington, Dunham predicted. In the Cingular case, it will probably take several months to get the class of plaintiffs certified and to gauge damages, he said. The case might not go to trial for two years, he added.
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FARGO, N.D. -- State officials filed a lawsuit Friday against the NCAA to challenge its restrictions on the University of North Dakota's Fighting Sioux nickname. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said the lawsuit, filed in Northeast Central District Court in Grand Forks, alleges a breach of contract...
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A Weymouth ticket reseller yesterday was ordered to identify who supplied it with tickets to seven Boston Red Sox games in 2005 and how much it paid for them.
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The state's 83-year-old prohibition on ticket scalping may be coming to an end. The Legislature's Consumer Affairs and Professional Licensure Committee reported out a bill yesterday that would scrap the existing antiscalping law and allow tickets to be resold at any price. The bill is expected to come up for a vote in the House this week.
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A Suffolk Superior Court judge is allowing StubHub Inc. to proceed with its lawsuit accusing the New England Patriots of trying to monopolize the resale of its own tickets.
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Northwest Airlines has pulled the plug on a controversial ticket-booking fee for travel agents, but held onto two new consumer charges.
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Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed suit this week against two distributors of the flu vaccine for allegedly charging exorbitant prices to hospitals in Houston, Dallas and Sherman, in violation of state law.
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As expected, the battle of the lawsuits and press releases started soon after an announcement Tuesday by Northwest Airlines that it was taking steps to align its distribution costs with those of the low-cost carriers it increasingly is competing with for
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Northwest Airlines Corp. reported a bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss of $420 million on Wednesday, and blamed high fuel costs and fare cuts by competitors.
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Gnawed by Northwest. Joining an apparent feeding frenzy, Northwest Airlines (nasdaq: NWAC - news - people ) on Tuesday said it plans to expand in Indianapolis, a move that will knock rival ATA Airlines from its No.
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US publisher sues a distributor and online store for shipping copies of the final book too early.
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Northwest Airlines has sued Sabre Holdings Co., which runs the world&#39;s biggest computerized reservation system, in a high-stakes dispute that could determine the future of third-party ticket portals like Galileo, Travelocity and Expedia.
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By Zoe Fraley, The Bellingham Herald, Wash.  Jun. 1--Tickets for the Northwest Washington Fair's grandstand performances are on sale, beginning at 8 a.m. today.   This year's fair in Lynden will run Aug.
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The union representing Northwest  Airlines Corp.'s flight attendants has filed a federal lawsuit  against the airline, demanding that employees be allowed to sit  in on contract negotiations.
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The Motion Picture Association of America says it has sued a company that sells Internet downloads of current movies like &quot;I, Robot&quot; and &quot;Spider-Man 2&quot; without permission.