iPad 3G Users to Receive $40 Credit Following Apple and AT&T Class Action

Apple iPad 3G owners who ordered or purchased their device on or before June 7, 2010 may receive a $40 credit from Apple early next year as a result of a class action lawsuit settlement. Apple and AT&T proposed the settlement last Thursday and it was approved by a US district court judge from California. Following the final approval expected in February, all eligible customers will be contacted regarding their settlement check.

They overpaid for their iPad 3Gs.

In addition to the credit from Apple, customers who did not use AT&T as their iPad’s cellular provider can take advantage of the company’s offer of a $20 monthly discount on their 5GB per month plan, which can be used for up to a year.

In response to the settlement the plaintiff’s motion stated, “[T]he settlements appropriately address both aspects of the alleged harm to class members: that they overpaid for their iPad 3Gs; and that they were denied promised access an expanded data plan.”

AT&T was the first carrier to provide cellular capabilities for the iPad, charging an additional $130 for ones with 3G capability. When AT&T retracted the option to purchase unlimited cellular data in 2010, four individual class action lawsuits were filed against both AT&T and Apple. The suits were consolidated in December of 2010 and collectively claimed that some customers may have based their iPad purchase off AT&T’s promise of unlimited data.

Data plans were capped at 2GB per month after the retraction, due to what AT&T cited as bandwidth constraints. However, in a sympathetic gesture to their customers AT&T has allowed users to be grandfathered into their unlimited data plan as long as they do not have any breaks in their bill payments. Though prior AT&T advertisements offered flexibility in switching between limited and unlimited data plans without fees, now users can no longer switch back to unlimited data packages after opting to use a limited data plan. Currently, AT&T offers plans up to 5GB per month, which allow tethering to other devices - something the unlimited data plan did not offer.