NEW YORK - A federal appeals court on Thursday threw out a $26.9 million award in favor of Sprint Corp , in a setback to the company’s years-long campaign to stop what it calls cellphone trafficking.
In a 3-0 decision, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, said Sprint’s contracts with customers who bought “upgraded” phones did not unambiguously prohibit those customers from reselling their phones to third parties.Sprint had accused the Odenton, Maryland-based company of wrongfully enticing customers still under contract with the mobile phone provider to sell their phones, and then reselling the phones at higher prices.
The case concerned Sprint’s contract with customers who buy “upgraded” phones at steep discounts, whose cost the Overland Park, Kansas-based company recoups through required service contracts that can last two years. Writing for the appeals court, Circuit Judge Jay Richardson parsed the language of Sprint’s contracts, and said U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake in Baltimore erred in concluding that Wireless Buybacks intentionally interfered with them.
In a rush to get nowhere.