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Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

‘Pay as You Go’|Contract Case Ends

(CN) - You can't breach a contract if you don't have one, a New York Appellate Court ruled, in upholding a lower court's dismissal of a breach of contract case against Virgin Media.

The class action involved to "pay-as-you-go" cellular phone services. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant failed to disclose these things on the packaging of its cellular phones: the requirement that subscribers to its phone services periodically "top up" their accounts by paying additional money to increase the available balances on those accounts; and the consequences of failing to "top up."

The defendants sought dismissal and the state supreme court and the appellate justices agreed.

"Inasmuch as no contract was formed until subscribers chose a particular service plan and activated their phones, the defendants' failure to disclose the 'topping up' requirements on the exterior packaging of the phone itself does not support a cause of action alleging breach of contract," the justices wrote.

The plaintiff's claims of false advertising were also properly dismissed, the justices wrote. "The plaintiff failed to allege that she suffered injury as a result of the allegedly deceptive business practices or false advertising."

The decision was unanimous.

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