T-Mobile settles to pay more than £290m to US customers after data breach

T-Mobile has agreed to pay 350 million US dollars (£292 million) to customers in America affected by a class action lawsuit filed after the company disclosed that personal data had been stolen in a cyber attack last August.

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday, the mobile phone company said the funds would pay for claims by class members, the legal fees of plaintiffs’ counsel and the costs of administering the settlement following a class action lawsuit.

The firm also said it would spend 150 million dollars (£125 million) next year and in 2023 to fortify its data security and other technologies.

T-Mobile said the settlement contains no admission of liability, wrongdoing or responsibility by any of the defendants.

The company said that it expects court approval of the terms of the settlement as early as December 2022.

Nearly 80 million US residents were affected by the breach.

In addition to US social security numbers, other information breached included names and information from drivers’ licences or other identification.

T-Mobile, based in Bellevue, Washington, became one of the country’s largest mobile phone service carriers, along with AT&T and Verizon, after acquiring rival Sprint in 2020.

It reported having a total of 102.1 million US customers after the merger.

T-Mobile said it expects to record a total pre-tax charge of roughly 400 million dollars (£333 million) in the second quarter of this year.