Comcast Monopoly Class Action Lawsuit Plaintiffs Ditch Chicago Class

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After the Supreme Court ruled against a putative Comcast monopoly class action lawsuit in its 2013 session, the plaintiffs did not give up. However, it is only moving forward with a requested group of plaintiffs who live in and around Philadelphia after the highest court’s ruling made it difficult for Chicago residents to achieve certification regarding alleged anticompetitive practices.

The two plaintiffs from the Windy City accepted that likelihood when broached by the overall group’s class action lawsuit lawyers and have personally signed off on the move. Comcast did not oppose the move, although it will still respond to what is now the fourth amended class action lawsuit filed by Stanford Glaberson, the lead plaintiff.

Factual allegations in the most recent document generally follow the same tack that earlier class action lawsuit complaints did in citing violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Some of the key issues involved in the case are:

1) Whether or not Comcast engaged in anticompetitive practices by buying stakes in other service areas and then swapping its customers there with ones that competing companies like AT&T had in the Philadelphia region in order to gain a de facto monopoly.

2) Whether or not the company violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by acquiring several companies that served the Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties in Pennsylvania, eventually resulting in it serving 94 percent of that market.

3) Whether, as a result of the above actions, Comcast was able to create a price-fixing scheme where by it would be able to establish supracompetitive rates that would not have existed were it not for the alleged violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

While the Supreme Court had initially ruled against certification of the Comcast class action lawsuit based on the fact that damage models were calculated based on four different theories, U.S. District Court Judge John R. Padova decided that they could start again as long as they stuck to one legal theory, and one damage model for that theory. Doing so created a “narrowed class based on a revised antitrust impact analysis.”

The plaintiffs are represented by class action lawsuit lawyers Barry Barnett of Susman Godfrey LLP; David Woodward and Jessica N. Servais of Heins Mills & Olson PLC; Joseph Goldberg of Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Urias & Ward PA; and Anthony J. Bolognese of Bolognese & Associates LLC.

The Comcast Monopoly Class Action Lawsuit is Stanford Glaberson, et al. v. Comcast Corp., Case No. 03-cv-06604, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

UPDATE: On Oct. 28, 2014, the plaintiff submitted a motion asking a Pennsylvania federal judge to approve Comcast’s proposed $50 million class action settlement with a Class of Philadelphia-area Comcast subscribers.

UPDATE 2: Instructions on how to file a claim for the Comcast class action settlement are now available! Click here or visit www.CableSettlement.com for details.

UPDATE 3: A judge gave final approval to the Philadelphia Comcast monopoly class action settlement on Sept. 22, 2015.

UPDATE 4: A Class Member filed an appeal to the Comcast monopoly class action settlement on Oct. 21, 2015.

UPDATE 5: On Feb. 23, 2016, according to our readers, Class Members who submitted timely and valid claims for the Comcast settlement began receiving checks worth as much as $15.