Telecom giant CenturyLink is now facing a multi-billion dollar class action lawsuit, filed Sunday in a California court.
The $12 billion complaint accuses the company of high-pressure sales culture, fraud and unfair competition. It comes just after a former employee in Gilbert filed a wrongful termination suit, alleging she was fired for reporting charges to customers without their approval.
Heidi Heiser claimed the corporate culture resulted in customers paying millions of dollars for accounts they did not open.
The new class action lawsuit, filed in a California court, references Heiser's suit and also accusations made by others, including individuals claiming to be company customers.
Attorneys filing the complaint estimate potential damages to be between $600 million and $12 billion, calculated using all 5.9 million of CenturyLink's subscribers.
Company representatives said the class action suit is trying to leverage the individual suit filed by the Arizona woman and does not change the company's position.
The legal filings come at the same time CenturyLink is preparing to merge with telecom company Level 3 Communications, estimated to be a $34 billion deal.
