Optical Disk Drive Class Action Settlement is Still Accepting Claims

Electronics purchasers still have time to claim a payment from a massive optical disk drive class action settlement.

The settlement is the product of a huge antitrust litigation against a group of manufacturers of optical disk drives, accusing them of several years’ worth of price-fixing.

Consumers who purchased electronics equipped with these optical disk drives during the applicable time period may qualify to receive a settlement payment.

Qualifying consumers must submit a valid and timely Claim Form to receive payment. These claims must be mailed or submitted online by Oct. 30, 2017.

Optical disk drives store and retrieve data from laser-based media such as compact discs, DVDs and Blu-rays. These drives include both stand-alone units and internal components made to be installed in many different kinds of consumer electronic products such as computers, gaming consoles, and audio-video equipment.

This optical disk drive class action settlement arose from a huge antitrust litigation that began back in 2009. Several different manufacturers of optical disk drives were accused of conspiring to fix the market price of optical disk drives at artificially high levels.

As a result of the alleged conspiracy, the manufacturers of consumer-ready electronics products claimed they paid more than they should have had to for internal optical disk drives to install in their products.

Consumers also claimed they suffered a similar economic harm in the form of higher prices paid, both for stand-alone optical disk drives and for internal drives installed in the consumer electronic products they purchased.

Plaintiffs in the optical disk drive litigation are referred to as “direct purchasers” and “indirect purchasers.” The direct purchasers are typically companies who bought optical disk drives directly from the defendants. The indirect purchasers are typically consumers who bought optical disk drives for their own use and not directly from the manufacturers.

These allegations were brought in several separate antitrust lawsuits. In 2010, these separate claims were consolidated into a single multidistrict litigation, or MDL, so that they could be processed together in a single federal court in San Francisco.

Resolution of these claims has been coming in stages. In July 2016, a federal judge granted approval of a $124.5 million settlement agreement with four of the defendant companies – Sony, NEC Corp., Panasonic Corp., and Hitachi-LG Data Storage.

This past March, defendants Pioneer, Philips and TEAC settled the claims against them. The three companies agreed to make about $55.5 million available for settlement payouts, bringing the total amount of available settlement funds to its current high of about $180 million.

These three defendants filed a motion on March 13 seeking court approval of their proposed settlement. A final approval hearing is scheduled for September 2017.

A few other defendants have yet to settle the claims against them. These defendants include BenQ, Samsung, Toshiba, Quanta Storage, and their related companies. The earlier optical disk drive settlements do not release the claims still pending against these defendants.

Any defendants that do not settle the claims against them will likely face trial, which is currently scheduled for February 2018.

Potential claimants can learn more about the settlement, including information about how to submit a claim, on the Top Class Actions Optical Disk Drive Indirect Purchaser Class Action Settlement page or by visiting www.DollarsForDiskDrives.com/TCA.

The Class is represented by Steve W. Berman, Shana E. Scarlett and Jeff D. Friedman of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP.

The Optical Disk Drive Indirect Purchaser Class Action Settlement is In re: Optical Disk Drive Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 3:10-md-2143-RS, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.