Court Extends Deadline for Consumers to Claim Portion of $180 Million Optical Disc Drive Products Antitrust Lawsuit Settlement

Consumers who purchased computers from 2003-2008 now have a longer window of time to file a claim for a portion of a $180 million settlement against electronics manufacturers, according to class counsel Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP.

The extension comes from the court, and moves the claim filing deadline to October 30, 2017 for any indirect purchasers (those bought from a retail store or website, for example) of certain optical disc drive (ODD) products.

What is the case about?
The $180 million lawsuit alleges a conspiracy involving ODD suppliers to fix, maintain or stabilize the prices of optical disc drives at artificially high levels in violation of federal and state antitrust laws for more than five years. In other words, consumers overpaid due to an ongoing scheme and agreement between the defendants. ODD refers to a DVD-RW, DVD-ROM, or Combo drive manufactured by one or more defendants or their asserted conspirators.

There are three separate groups of defendants in this lawsuit:
1.) Koninklijke Philips N.V., Lite-On IT Corporation, Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions Corporation, Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (collectively PLDS);
2.) Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer North America, Inc., Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc., and Pioneer High Fidelity Taiwan Co., Ltd. (collectively Pioneer); and
3.) TEAC America, Inc.; TEAC Corporation (collectively TEAC).

Am I affected? Could I file a claim?
You may be eligible to file a claim in this case if you:

• Indirectly* bought a computer with an internal optical disc drive and/or a stand-alone disc drive,
  Between April 1, 2003 and December 31, 2008,
• For your own use, and not for resale and
• While a resident of any of these 24 states: AZ, CA , DC, FL, HI, KS, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NM, NY, NC, OR, TN, UT, VT, WV or WI.

*”Indirectly” means the product was purchased at a retail store or online site (ex: Walmart, Amazon.com, Best Buy, etc.), and not the manufacturer, directly.

How do I file a claim?
A detailed notice, which includes additional information about the settlements, as well as the ability to file an online claim, is available.

What are the settlement benefits?
The settlements provide for $55.5 million in recovery for class members (see below) in addition to $124.5 million already reached with four defendant families (Panasonic, NEC, Sony and HLDS) for a total settlement of $180 million.

Specifically, the PLDS settlement fund is $40 million, the Pioneer settlement fund is $10.5 million and the TEAC settlement fund is $5 million (for a total of $55.5 million).