Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST—N.D. Cal.: NEC’s settlement in optical disk drive price fixing suit gets preliminary nod, (Apr 30, 2014)

By Jeffrey May, J.D.

A $6 million settlement on behalf of direct purchasers of optical disk drives (ODDs) resolving the purchasers’ price fixing claims against defendant NEC Corporation has received preliminary approval from the federal district court in San Francisco. The court also certified a proposed class for purposes of the settlement (In re Optical Disk Drive Antitrust Litigation, April 24, 2014, Seeborg, R.).

The plaintiffs alleged that NEC and other ODD suppliers conspired to fix prices from about 2004 through 2009. An ODD is a device which reads and/or writes data from and to an optical disk, such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. ODDs also may be incorporated into or attached to computers or other devices.

The settlement class includes: “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 in the United States directly from the Defendants, their subsidiaries, or their affiliates.” The class excludes the defendants and their parents, subsidiaries, and affiliates, as well as governmental entities.

The settlement provides that, with court approval, $750,000 of the $6 million settlement fund would be used to pay expenses incurred for prosecution against non-settling defendants. Up to one-third of the settlement fund could go toward attorney fees.

Notice of the class settlement will be provided in May. Class members wishing to be excluded must notify the claims administrator no later than June 23, 2014.

Because the court concluded that the NEC settlement “falls within the range of possible final approval,” it has scheduled a hearing for August 14 to determine whether to grant final approval. The court has previously approved settlements with Hitachi, Ltd. and LG Electronics, Inc. and related entities, as well as Panasonic Corporation.

This is Case No. 3:10-md-02143 RS (MDL No. 2143).

Attorneys: Guido Saveri (Saveri & Saveri, Inc.) for plaintiffs. Robert B. Pringle (Winston & Strawn LLP) for NEC Corp.

Companies: NEC Corp.

Cases: Antitrust CaliforniaNews