US: Law firm announces settlement for optical disk drive antitrust suit

A class-action settlement case has been set up by Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP for owners of optical disc drives manufactured by four electronics companies in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

Through litigation, Hagans Berman is in the process of securing settlement payments of $124.5 million from manufacturers Panasonic Corp., Panasonic Corp. of North America, NEC Corp., Sony Corp., Sony Optiarc Inc., Sony Optiarc America Inc. and Hitachi-LG Data Storage Inc. and Hitachi-LG Data Storage Korea Inc. for optical disc drives, which the suit states the companies colluded to price fix the sale of these products.

“Through our investigation, our firm found that manufacturers of almost all optical disc drives (ODDs) colluded to stabilize the prices of ODDs worldwide, artificially and illegally raising prices for consumers across the country,” Steve Berman, managing partner at Hagens Berman, told the Northern California Record. “This litigation seeks to return millions of dollars in ill-gotten profits to honest purchasers who were blindsided by this scheme. To date, we have recovered $124.5 million.”

Full Content: Northern California Record

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