The Canadian telecommunications company Research in Motion (RIM) is reportedly being sued by Blackberry customers in Canada and the US for ‘breach of contract’.
In the lawsuit, RIM, which provides the wireless solution for Blackberry devices, is accused of being responsible for the recent global outage on the network, which left users without internet service, email and instant messaging access for up to four days.
The complaint states:
“It [RIM] has not compensated consumers on a prorated basis for such loss of use, while knowing full well that Blackberry users pay a monthly fee to their wireless service providers for data services and that they were deprived thereof.”
Even though Research in Motion has offered affected customers a free software package worth $100, the company could need to rely on its professional indemnity insurance to cover compensation payments.
Informa Telecom & Media estimates that the case could be worth as much as $25 million if it goes to court, as well as damaging RIM’s reputation. Informa’s analysts say that the situation could ‘snowball’ as more customers get involved, so recommends that RIM compensate customers as soon as possible in order to limit the damage.