FedEx settles lawsuit over delivery charges

FedEx Corp. has settled a lawsuit over claims that it routinely overcharged by billing deliveries to business and government offices at higher residential-delivery rates.

A federal judge in Memphis scheduled a preliminary settlement hearing for July 23 in a lawsuit that challenged FedEx's billing of customers for deliveries to offices and government buildings.

The settlement is tentative and subject to court approval, said FedEx spokeswoman Shea Leordeanu Tuesday. Steven J. Rosenwasser, an Atlanta attorney for the plaintiffs, confirmed the settlement but declined to provide details. He said terms would be disclosed "in a week or two."

A law firm in Alpharetta, Ga., sued FedEx in 2011, claiming that the company improperly added residential-delivery surcharges that could total more than $3 per package for many deliveries to office towers and government addresses. The lawsuit said that FedEx used a mistake-filled database that identified many commercial and government buildings as residential even though the FedEx driver knew better.

FedEx delivers about 2.5 million packages per day. It's not clear how many might have been wrongly billed as residential.

In court filings, FedEx had said customers could challenge charges that they considered inaccurate.

The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status to represent all affected customers from February 2010 to the settlement date.

The company's stock rose $4.32, or 4.4 percent, to close at $103.15 Tuesday. In the past year, the shares have ranged from a low of $83.92 in September to $109.66 in March.