De Beers Diamond Settlement Payments Go Out to Direct Purchasers

De Beers Diamond Settlement Payments Go Out to Direct Purchasers

By Mike Holter

A new round of payments has gone out in the De Beers diamond class action lawsuit settlement. Initial distribution of checks was mailed to Authorized Direct Claimants on July 26, according to an update on the Settlement Administrator website.

The payments were sent to companies that purchased directly from De Beers or De Beers’ Diamond Mining Competitors from September 1997 through March 2006. The settlement checks have a void date of October 24, 2013, and the deadline to request the check be reissued is October 1, 2013.

Payments were calculated based on several factors, including how much you paid, the type of the diamonds you purchased (i.e. Rough or Polished), the amount of money that is available for your Class or Sub-class, and how many Class Members filed authorized claims. Additional details regarding how your claim was calculated is available in paragraphs 9-10 of the Direct Purchaser Notice of Proposed Settlement, which is available at www.DiamondsClassAction.com.

In addition, notifications and payments were sent to Consumer Claimants in June 2013.

The De Beers diamond payments are part of a class action lawsuit settlement resolving allegations that De Beers violated antitrust laws by monopolizing diamond supplies and conspiring to fix and control diamond prices, among other allegations.

Top Class Actions has been reporting on the De Beers Diamond Class Action Lawsuit Settlement for several years now. We look forward to hearing what our readers receive from the long-awaited payouts.

The case is Shawn Sullivan, et al. v. DB Investments Inc., Case No. 04-cv-2819 (SRC), U.S. District Court, New Jersey.

Updated August 5th, 2013

All class action and lawsuit news updates are listed in the Lawsuit News section of Top Class Actions