Portion of optical disk drive antitrust class action settles

MonitorMultiple electronics makers have agreed to settle with a class of direct purchasers in a class action pending in California federal court.

The class action alleged that the seven defendant corporations, including Sony Corp., Samsung Electronic Co. Ltd., Philips Electronics NV, BenQ Corp., Pioneer Electronics Inc., Quanta Storage Inc., and TEAC Corp. engaged in price fixing.  The seven defendants have agreed to pay a total of $37 million to settle claims that they conspired to fix prices on optical disc drives, products that read or write data on CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays and are found in computers, video game consoles and other devices.

The proposed settlement class includes all individuals and entities who purchased one or more optical disk drives in the U.S. directly from the defendants or any of their subsidiaries or affiliates between Jan. 1, 2004 and Jan. 1, 2010.

The direct purchasers noted that the court previously approved a $26 million settlement they reached with defendants Hitachi-LG Data Storage Inc. and related entities, a $5.75 million settlement they reached with Panasonic Corp. and a $6.15 million settlement with NEC Corp..

The case is In re: Optical Disk Drive Products Antitrust Litigation, case number 3:10-md-02143, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. 

Steve Larson

An experienced trial lawyer who handles both hourly and contingent fee cases, Steve has expertise in class actions, environmental clean-up litigation, antitrust litigation, securities litigation, corporate disputes, intellectual property disputes, unfair competition claims, and disputes involving family wealth. Steve regularly represents individuals and businesses in federal and state court and has obtained class-wide recovery in multiple class actions. A veteran practitioner, Steve’s clients value his creative approach to resolving complex litigation matters.

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