Class Action Lawsuits Against Verizon

Two lawsuits against Verizon are being considered in court today in New York. One lawsuit is brought by a group of workers who were injured while on the job. The other lawsuit is brought against Verizon by a Chinese firm who sell equipment to Verizon. This could be the first case of retaliation against a large carrier in the country. Could either lawsuits have merit?

According to a Verizon spokesperson, the lawsuits are “solely a publicity stunt and an attempt to distract from [Verizon’s] record and business.”

Verizon acknowledges the two lawsuits and states that they will aggressively pursue the claims against China, but declined to comment on whether they would sue China over the phones. “If China illegally sells products to us or tries to coerce our employees into using those illegal products – we will defend ourselves,” said Verizon. A spokesperson for Huawei stated, “Huawei has no relationship with Verizon.” We will see if the Federal Court allows either lawsuit to proceed.

The lawsuits against Verizon were filed by a group of lawyers who worked on Verizon’s legal team.

One of the lawsuits was filed by a former Verizon attorney who was critical of Verizon’s dealings with China. The attorney had argued that Verizon had engaged in practices similar to those of Enron, which he called “cheating”. In 2021, Verizon paid $456 million to settle claims by its Chinese partners for the breach of contract, theft of proprietary information, and violations of the “safe-harbor” provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

In its filings in the lawsuits against Verizon, the Chinese company referred to as Huawei referenced many cases in the past that involve Verizon, but did not provide any examples.

Verizon is represented in the pending litigation by a class action lawsuit counsel from the Law Corporation of America. There are currently three class action lawsuits currently pending in the United States. All of these lawsuits were brought on behalf of individual employees of Verizon who believe that they have been wrongfully dismissed or improperly compensated. Class action lawsuits provide the basis for class actions and are usually more successful because they cover a large enough population to make it difficult for a defendant’s side of the story to be told.

The complaint in one case says that Verizon’s stock dipped by fifteen percent within forty-eight hours after an article in Business Week that accused Verizon of cheating on its pricing in China.

The article mentioned a third-party source that provided the pricing data. The next lawsuit filed against Verizon said that the incident was the first time in thirty-five years that Verizon has faced such a problem. The complaint further stated that the stock price dropped by eighteen percent within two days after the article appeared. Then, within a significant period of time, another article about Verizon was published in the Financial Times. This article, which repeated some of the same accusations as in the Business Week article, again blamed Verizon.

It is important to understand that Verizon has already settled the majority of class action lawsuits brought against it.

However, the company still faces a class action lawsuit stemming from its handling of the Verizon FiOS fiber optic line. According to court documents, Verizon has agreed to a settlement amount of approximately $2.4 billion. The terms of the settlement, however, have not been disclosed. In addition, a number of state Attorneys General have threatened to file lawsuits challenging the legality of Verizon’s fiber optic decision. Until the lawsuits are resolved, Verizon continues to face significant financial problems.