Welcome to the Direct Purchaser Optical Disk Drive Antitrust Litigation Website
CASE UPDATE (9/2/2021): The Court approved the Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs' Motion on September 2, 2021 and checks will be issued to qualifying recipients of the additional pro-rata payment once the order is final. Qualifying recipients are claimants who were authorized to be paid more than $10.00 from the initial distribution, participated in the initial settlement distribution by cashing their checks, and would be entitled to an additional pro rata payment of at least $10.00 from the remaining Net Settlement Funds.
CASE UPDATE (7/20/2021): All uncashed checks from the initial distribution have been stopped and a hearing has been set for September 2, 2021 at 1:30 pm to review Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs' Motion requesting authorization to distribute the remaining Settlement Funds.
(PLEASE NOTE: To be a Class Member, you must have made a qualifying DIRECT purchase from a Defendant, Defendant's subsidiary, or Defendant's affiliate, during one of the Class Periods)
The purpose of this website is to provide information to potential Settlement Class Members about the settlements in the case entitled: In re Optical Disk Drive Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 3:10-md-02143-RS.
Plaintiffs claim that Defendants (listed below) engaged in an unlawful conspiracy to fix, raise, maintain or stabilize the prices of ODDs. Plaintiffs further claim that direct purchasers from the Defendants of certain devices that contain ODDs may recover for the effect that the ODD conspiracy had on the prices of these devices. Plaintiffs allege that, as a result of the unlawful conspiracy involving ODDs, they and other direct purchasers paid more for ODDs than they would have paid absent the conspiracy. Defendants deny Plaintiffs' claims.
Although the information in this website is intended to assist you, it does not replace the information contained in the Class Notices or the Settlement Agreements, all of which can be downloaded from this website.
Definitions
A) “Direct Purchaser” means a person or business who bought an Optical Disk Drive or an Optical Disk Drive Device directly from one or more of the Defendants, affiliates, or subsidiaries. A direct purchaser is NOT a person or company who purchased an Optical Disk Drive or an Optical Disk Drive Device from a wholesaler or a retail store such as Best Buy, NewEgg, Ingram Micro, or Walmart.
B) The “Class Periods” refer to January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2011 for the HLDS settlement, and January 1, 2004 through January 1, 2010 for the Panasonic, NEC, PLDS, TSST, Sony, BenQ, TEAC, QSI, and Pioneer settlements.
C) “Defendant” or “Defendants” means the following entities named as Defendants in this action:
BenQ Corporation; BenQ America Corporation; Hitachi, Ltd.; Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.; Hitachi-LG Data Storage Korea, Inc.; Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.; Lite-On IT Corp.; LG Electronics, Inc.; LG Electronics USA;NEC Corporation; Panasonic Corporation; Panasonic Corporation of North America; Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions Corp.; Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions U.S.A., Inc.; Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc.; Pioneer North America, Inc.; Pioneer Corporation; Pioneer High Fidelity Taiwan Co., Ltd.; Quanta Storage Inc.; Quanta Storage America Inc.; Sony Corporation; Sony Optiarc Inc. (formerly known as Sony NEC Optiarc Inc.); Sony Electronics Inc.; Sony Optiarc America Inc. (formerly known as Sony NEC Optiarc America Inc.); Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.; Samsung Electronics America, Inc.; Toshiba Corporation; Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc.; Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corporation; Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Korea Corporation; TEAC Corporation; and TEAC America, Inc.
D) “Settlement Class” or “Settlement Classes” means:
For the HLDS settlement: “All individuals and entities who, during the period from January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2011, purchased Optical Disk Drives and Optical Disk Drive Devices in the United States directly from the Defendants, their subsidiaries, or their affiliates. Excluded from the Class are Defendants and their parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, and all governmental entities.”
For the Panasonic, NEC, PLDS, TSST, Sony, BenQ, TEAC, QSI, and Pioneer settlements: “All individuals and entities who, during the period from January 1, 2004 until at least January 1, 2010 purchased one or more Optical Disk Drives or a laptop or desktop computer incorporating an ODD in the United States directly from the Defendants, their subsidiaries, or their affiliates. Excluded from the Class are Defendants and their parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, and all governmental entities."
E) “Optical Disk Drive” or “ODD” means any device which reads and/or writes data from and to an optical disk, including but not limited to, CD-ROM, CD-recordable/rewritable, DVD-ROM, DVD-recordable/rewritable, Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray recordable/rewritable, HD-DVD, Super Multi-Drives and other combination drives. The term “Optical Disk Drives” or “ODDs” shall also include (a) a drive sold as a separate unit that is to be inserted into, or incorporated in, an electronic device; and (b) a drive sold that is to be attached to an electronic device through an external interface such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection.
F) “Optical Disk Drive Device” or “ODD Device” means a device incorporating an ODD including but not limited to desktop computers, mobile/laptop computers, videogame consoles, CD players/recorders, DVD players/recorders, and Blu-Ray disc players/recorders.
G) “Class Members” means all members of the Settlement Classes who did not timely and validly elect to be excluded from the Settlement Classes certified by the Court.
H) “Net Settlement Funds” means the combined proceeds from the HLDS, Panasonic, NEC, PLDS, TSST, Sony, BenQ, TEAC, QSI, and Pioneer settlements plus accrued interest minus all costs, attorneys’ fees, expenses, and incentive awards.