You have reached the official website for the Optical Disk Drives Antitrust Settlements.
Important Update
An appeal is pending but the Court has directed the Settlement Administrator to disburse the award payments. On September 30, 2022 the Court approved a second distribution of Settlement Funds: Order Regarding Second Round of Distribution of Settlement Funds. The second distribution is expected to commence on October 21. Payments will be sent via the same method by which class members received their initial award payment. If you have any questions, please go the FAQ page for troubleshooting tips.
On April 7, 2022, the Court approved the following plan and schedule for distribution of the settlement funds to class members: Order Approving Distribution Schedule.
On March 7, 2022, Counsel submitted a proposed distribution plan to the Court along with a declaration by one of the settlement administrators. This plan lays out the schedule and the options for class members to receive payment. While claims are no longer being accepted, class members should begin receiving their payments in the coming weeks.
On January 18, 2022 Counsel submitted a status update. At this time it is expected that the distribution will begin in early 2022.
The claims period for the $205 million class action settlement in the Optical Disk Drive Antitrust litigation is now closed. The district court overseeing this litigation has approved all the settlements as fair and reasonable, and has approved the payment of attorneys’ fees.
A small number of class members have objected to the terms of the settlement and the payment of attorneys’ fees to lead counsel, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP. The objectors have appealed the district court’s approval of the settlement to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Under the governing case law, until the objections are resolved, we are unable to distribute the settlement funds to class members.
Hagens Berman believes that these objections are without merit. We are proud of the recovery on behalf of the indirect purchaser class, and believe that private class actions are an important counterbalance to the power of large corporations. This litigation sprawled many years, multiple continents, with millions of documents and dozens of depositions. Without joining together the claims of consumers, and allowing law firms to act on their behalf, there would be no recovery for the average consumer injured by such a coordinated and sophisticated cartel. We at Hagens Berman will continue to act on behalf of the class until the overcharges due to this cartel are returned to consumers.
You may be eligible for a payment from a settlement reached with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (“SEC”), Toshiba Corporation (“Toshiba Corp.”), and Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corporation (“TSST”). Note that there have been appeals filed to the Court’s previous Orders Granting Final Approval of Indirect Purchaser Plaintiffs’ Settlements with Sony, NEC, Panasonic, HLDS, PLDS, Pioneer, and TEAC. These appeals are currently pending. Please continue to monitor this website for updates on resolution of the appeals.
Participation in any of the settlements is open to anyone who purchased a new computer with an internal ODD, a stand-alone ODD designed for internal use in a computer, or an ODD designed to be attached externally to a computer while a resident of AZ, CA, DC, FL, HI, KS, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NM, NY, NC, OR, TN, UT, VT, WV, or WI during the period of April 2003 to December 2008 for personal use and not for resale. ODD refers to a DVD-RW, DVD-ROM, or COMBO drive manufactured by one or more Defendants or their alleged conspirators.
Regardless of which defendant you purchased your ODD from, the deadline to file a claim was June 28, 2019. The deadline to exclude yourself from or object to these settlements has passed.