NEW YORK-New England Mobile Telecommunications Inc., a Norwalk, Conn.-based retailer of wireless communications products and services, has brought a $20 million breach of contract lawsuit against Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile.
New England Mobile, doing business as KarTele Cellular Phones, filed suit against the carrier in Connecticut State Superior Court in Stamford early last week, said Sal Marino, founder and chief executive officer of KarTele. The lawsuit claims Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile broke its contractual obligations to KarTele and violated the Connecticut Franchise Act and the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, according to a press release issued by the plaintiff.
“BANM is engaging in monopolistic and predatory practices,” Marino told RCR. “We intend to make a visible case out of this because these kinds of things are happening to a lot of people like us. There are people with newborn babies running our stores. A lot of livelihoods are at stake. But fortunately the laws are there to protect us.”
Jim Gerace, executive director of public relations for Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile, Bedminster, N.J., said the carrier had received the complaint last week and is reviewing it. “Beyond that, it would be inappropriate for me to comment,” he said.
KarTele, founded in 1988, began franchising in 1992 and owns eight franchise locations in the Connecticut municipalities of Greenwich, Norwalk, Westport, Fairfield, Monroe, Danbury, Waterbury and Southington. All exclusively sold Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile service. “We were probably one of the largest, if not the largest, BANM franchisee in Connecticut,” Marino said.
According to Marino, KarTele had a three-year contract that expired Dec. 31 and gave the franchise retailer, not the carrier, the option to renew for three additional years. However, Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile refused to renew the contract, he said.
KarTele then switched to selling products and services of SNET Mobility Inc., based in Rocky Hill, Conn., but the contracts “aren’t nearly as lucrative,” Marino said. As a result, three of its other franchise locations, in Stamford, Hamden and Enfield, closed this year, KarTele said.
“When BANM began opening its own locations about three years ago, we held numerous meetings with them; we were told [the carrier] intended these as customer service locations and didn’t intend to compete directly with us,” Marino said.
Since then, however, he said Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile “has been active in soliciting customers and selling them aftermarket products not normally associated with activations below the price we’d have to pay (the carrier) for them.”
