Court Should Compel SIM Card Privacy Case to Arbitration, Says T-Mobile Counsel

A dispute over alleged unlawful access of a customer’s cellphone SIM card “should have been brought in arbitration in the first instance,” said counsel Rebecca Tingey of Davis Wright for T-Mobile in a Thursday letter (docket 1:23-cv-05206) requesting a pre-motion conference on the carrier’s motion to compel arbitration in U.S. District Court for Eastern New York in Brooklyn. Plaintiff Benjamin Kyle opposes the motion. Kyle sued T-Mobile and T-Mobile store employees Silvia Hernandez and Emma Nodine this month (see 2307070024), alleging a T-Mobile data breach enabled the two employees to unlawfully access his cellphone’s SIM card with his financial information, social security number and over $30,000 in funds from his Coinbase cryptocurrency account. T-Mobile maintains Kyle agreed to its terms and conditions, including an agreement to arbitrate claims about T-Mobile services. The court should compel Kyle’s claims to arbitration and stay the action pending arbitration, Tingey said. T-Mobile’s deadline to respond to the complaint was seven days after its removal from New York Supreme Court July 7.