class-action lawsuit If you owned a computer with a DVD drive in the US, you might be owed $10

[WALLONN7]

If you owned a computer with a DVD drive in the US, you might be owed $10

 

With the popularity of SSD drives and with devices becoming ever so more thinner and lighter, some might forget that there was once a time when PCs and laptops came with a DVD drive as a standard option. Well, if you live in the US, and had previously owned one of these computers with a DVD drive, you might be owed some money and might want to fill out a claim online (via cnet.com)

According to reports, Sony, NEC, Panasonic, and Hitachi-LG have settled a seven-year-old class-action lawsuit in regards to questionable business practices and the inflation of prices on optical drives sold to computer companies and retailers. Essentially, around the times when there was peak demand for DVD drives, these companies allegedly shared their bids with each other to keep prices high and turn profits. As a result, customers who purchased a computer with a DVD drive (or a standalone external DVD drive) between April 1, 2003 and December 31, 2008, can head to this website, or mail in a claim for $10 on each drive purchased.

It is not immediately clear how long it will take for customers to receive their $10 consolidation, but the process to do so is relatively easy. Interestingly enough, the website for the claim does not require you to show proof of purchase, and all you need to provide is our name, email address and the number of drives you owned. Certain states are excluded from the claim, and Panasonic computers are not eligible. To successfully file a claim you need to be residing in:

Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, or Wisconsin.

Manufacturers such as Sony, Hitachi-LG, NEC and Panasonic have already contributed $124.5 million to their legal settlement, and there were 57 million computers in the US in 2003, so it could be some time until things are sorted out and the money heads your way. As always, we will be following this closley, so let us know what you think by dropping us a comment below!

 

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[Batu69]

Residents of several stated in the United States who purchased an internal or external optical drive, or a computer with such a drive, are eligible for benefits from settlements reached in antitrust litigation currently pending in federal court. The benefits are expected to be around $10 per drive.

 

 

The optical drives have to be purchased between April 1st 2003 and December 31st 2008 and have to be manufactured by either Panasonic, NEC, Sony NEC OptiArc, Hitachi LG Data Storage (HLDS). Claimants also have to be a resident of any of the 23 listed states (and the District of Columbia).

 

The class-action lawsuit took more than seven years before reaching a settlement and was about optical disk drive manufacturers sharing bids among themselves when they were selling products to retailers and computer builders like Dell and HP. This kept prices artificially high and violates antitrust laws.

 

Most involved optical drive manufacturers denied involvement but several companies agreed to settle. They have agreed to pay $124.5 million which is currently expected to be around $10 per sold drive.

 

In case you meet all requirements then a claim can me made by simply filling in a form on the opticaldiskdriveantitrust.com website before the 1st of July 2017. Interestingly no proof of purchase is currently required, but in case the administrator of the claims suspects fraud, they might change that requirement.

 

Unfortunately the money doesn’t come soon, lawyers involved the class-action lawsuit are waiting to see if other optical drive manufacturers will be joining the settlement. This delays the payout but should have the benefit that payouts will be higher.

 

The settlement hearing is currently scheduled for December this year and payments will only begin after that, but it might take even longer if other manufacturers join the settlement.

 

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