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Class action suit proposed against RIM

MONTREAL — Canadian BlackBerry users affected by Research In Motion’s global outage earlier this month are being asked to join in a proposed class-action lawsuit seeking refunds for the downtime.

MONTREAL — Canadian BlackBerry users affected by Research In Motion’s global outage earlier this month are being asked to join in a proposed class-action lawsuit seeking refunds for the downtime.

Consumer Law Group Inc. of Montreal said it has filed a nationwide suit against BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (TSX:RIM) and claims the Waterloo, Ont., company has failed to directly compensate BlackBerry users, who pay monthly data fees to wireless carriers.

“The class action involves RIM’s failure to take action to either directly compensate BlackBerry users or to indirectly compensate BlackBerry users by arranging for wireless service providers to refunds their customers and to take full responsibility for these damages,” the Consumer Law Group Inc. said in a statement.

Consumer Law Group claims that RIM also failed to arrange for service providers such as Rogers (TSX:RCI.B), BCE Inc.’s Bell (TSX:BCE) and Telus (TSX:T) to provide refunds.

RIM is offering its 70 million BlackBerry customers worldwide $100 worth of pre-selected software applications from its BlackBerry App World.

Some BlackBerry users have complained they don’t want the apps and would prefer to be compensated by RIM via their wireless carrier bills.

The lawsuit has been filed in Quebec Superior Court and needs to be certified by a judge as a class action before it can go forward.

The suit covers the BlackBerry outage of text messages, email and Internet services which occurred around the world for various lengths of time from Oct. 11 to Oct. 14.