Dish Network Agrees to International Access Fee Class Action Settlement

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Dish Network Agrees to International Access Fee Class Action Settlement

By Anne Bucher

On Monday, Dish Network LLC agreed to settle a class action lawsuit over a monthly “international access” fee it charged subscribers, offering to get rid of the fee and provide the affected subscribers with free subscriptions to satellite television packages.

Plaintiffs David Melamed and Issam Alshaer filed the class action lawsuit against Dish Network in October 2012, claiming that the $10 monthly “international access” fee was imposed without proper notice and violated their service contracts of customers who only subscribed to a foreign language satellite TV package. They allege that this fee violated consumer protection laws and amounted to common law fraud and misrepresentation.

Dish Network argued that the fee was necessary to offset a drop in programming prices for the Class Members. 

“Essentially, the ‘International Access Fee’ was imposed in order to make pricing levels for existing international subscribers to those packages, and to avoid an immediate drop in revenue,” the class action settlement said. Further, because the amount the subscribers paid for television programming did not change after the implementation of the fee, the subscribers did not experience any “true” damages. Dish Network also insisted that it had the ability under its contract to impose any fee at any time. However, it has agreed to settle the class action lawsuit to avoid the expense and uncertainty of trial.

Following a lengthy discovery process and an all-day mediation with Judge Peter D. Lichtman in May, the parties reached an agreement about the class action settlement. The plaintiffs submitted their motion for preliminary approval of the settlement on Nov. 18. 

If the Dish Network class action settlement is approved, Class Members will include all Dish Network subscribers as of Nov. 1, 2010 who subscribed to a “core” package in addition to an international programming package, and who were charged a $10 “international access” fee. The fee was reportedly charged to more than 100,000 subscribers per month.

Under the terms of the proposed class action settlement, Dish Network will no longer impose the “international access” fee for a period of at least 24 months. Further, Class Members will be permitted to receive the “World Pack” and “World News Pack” satellite TV packages, which normally cost $5 per month. As a result, the Class Members will save $10 per month on their monthly statement and receive added channels at no extra cost.

According to the court documents, the Dish Network class action settlement terms “represent a compromise of the parties’ positions and are fair, adequate and reasonable to the class, given the risks that both sides faced in the litigation.”

A hearing for the preliminary approval of the class action settlement has been scheduled for Dec. 16. 2003.

The plaintiffs are represented by Andre E. Jardini and K.L. Myles of Knapp Petersen & Clarke and Joseph S. Farzam of Joseph Farzam Law Firm.

The Dish Network International Access Fee Class Action Lawsuit is David Melamed, et al. v. Dish Network LLC, et al., Case No. 2:12-cv-08941, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

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