# Class action win can get you $20 cheque ...



## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

http://www.thestar.com/business/personal_finance/2015/03/03/class-action-win-can-get-you-20-cheque-roseman.html#



> ... *Canada: between 1999 and 2002, people weren’t aware that they were paying too much for their electronic devices. Some memory chip manufacturers reportedly agreed to price fix. A class-action lawsuit was filed and a settlement was reached*.
> 
> *“If you purchased a computer, printer, game console or any other device with a memory chip between 1999 and 2002, you can now get your money back. Simply visit themoneyismine.ca and get what is owed to you.”
> 
> ...


Has anyone ever tried to make or participatet in a claim such as this?


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## Davis (Nov 11, 2014)

I filled out the online form and got an email saying that in about a year's time, I will get a cheque for at least $20. I 'll yet you know sometime in 2016.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Davis said:


> I filled out the online form and got an email saying that in about a year's time, I will get a cheque for at least $20. I 'll yet you know sometime in 2016.


Not surprised, the TV ad claims the class action has $80 million set aside. Guess who will be getting most of that $80 million.

I find that the ad is rather misleading.saying if you bought a computer, printer, yada yada, you can make a claim and "get your money back"....no receipts required" so basically anybody can apply and claim that they bought such and such a model between 1999 and 2003. Wait about a year, and depending when you file your claim and there is still money in the "pot", you might get $20 back.



> No receipts are required. Eligible applicants will receive at least $20 and you may receive much more i*f you bought electronic devices containing DRAM (dynamic random access memory) for manufacturing, resale or purposes* other than personal use.





> Consumers will end up with $56 to $57 million of the $80 million settlement *after the other costs have been paid (lawyers, claims administrator (NPT RicePoint), marketers, publicists and media partners*). The distribution scheme took two years to work out.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

I remember reading that Money Mart settled a multi-million dollar class action suit, by knocking $5 off the next 5 loans for customers..........LOL........

At the end of class action lawsuits, the lawyers get new Maseratis and the plaintiffs get bus tickets home.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

sags said:


> I remember reading that Money Mart settled a multi-million dollar class action suit, by knocking $5 off the next 5 loans for customers..........LOL........
> 
> At the end of class action lawsuits, the lawyers get new Maseratis and the plaintiffs get bus tickets home.


This class action was just for the RAM memory price fixing component of the PC or printer, where there are several
manufacturers of the same RAM chip with identical specs. There was some collusion between them and so it got
that far in the US. 

If it was strictly Canada, that class action probably would have never gone through..we as Canadians are used to be
ripped off by our gov'ts and the retail industry. Take for instance the "Black Friday" cross border shopping that
Canadians used to do..at least until the crude oil prices started to "tank". Now with the falling dollar, nobody wants
to get ripped off by the banks on the exchange rate .. (the exchange rate that the banks actually charge is closer to 23% right now) , so the cross border shopping has pretty much dried up, and now we go back to 
shopping at home, knowing that we will pay higher for the same items. 

Can you imagine a class action lawsuit in Canada for the higher prices on cars or other consumer goods? Not going to
happen here.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Yeah look how long ago this is. We're talking about purchases from 14 years ago!

My Saturday morning task was locating any evidence of my past electronics purchases in that class action time frame. Of course I bought lots of stuff... I certainly bought graphics cards and other expansion cards of various kinds.

But it's so long ago, it's before I started electronic record keeping. I can't find any records at all. So I'll have to go for the $20 claim


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

By the way, the fact you can get back a whopping $20 after all this time and lawyer's fees shows just how MASSIVE the original fraud must have been.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

james4beach said:


> But it's so long ago, it's before I started electronic record keeping.


I was an early adopter of online shopping.. bought a HP desktop for myself during this time when I was in high school. So.. if I could log into my ancient Hotmail account I would have a big receipt. Anything bought post Gmail is just a google search away, and it comes in handy. I can't log into MSN or Skype or Hotmail anymore due to Micro$oft deleting old accounts as they see fit.


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## sags (May 15, 2010)

This is an example of a case where the vast majority of consumers will never see any of the money, but it looks good for the regulators and courts.

I think a better solution to these types of settlements, which inevitably only a small amount is ever actually paid out to consumers as a whole, is to pass a law that directs the settlements of a consumer protection lawsuit to an organization that would benefit all Canadians. A dribble here and there is a useless remedy.

The money could be directed into cancer research, for example.

There would be a positive two fold affect.

The consumer would actually get something positive out of the settlement, and the companies would know that if they are found guilty.........they are going to pay 100% of the settlement immediately.

Maybe an "immediate full payment" solution for consumer protection types of settlements would convince them it isn't worth it to screw the consumer over.

Personal injury settlements wouldn't be affected.


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

I think you will it difficult to dedicate the payout to a charity.


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## Davis (Nov 11, 2014)

The high tech industry colluding... governments and the retail industry ripping us off...the banks ripping us off with exchange rates... Only the lawyers getting rich.... 

What a horrible world to live in. I think I would be frustrated and angry all the time living in a world like that, and we know how that can impact your health and shorten your lifespan. I'm glad I don't live in a world like that.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

sags said:


> This is an example of a case where the *vast majority of consumers will never see any of the money*, but it looks good for the regulators and courts.
> 
> I think a better solution to these types of settlements, which inevitably only a small amount is ever actually paid out to consumers as a whole, is to pass a law that directs the settlements of a consumer protection lawsuit to an organization that would benefit all Canadians. A dribble here and there is a useless remedy.
> 
> .


The way I see this, is that the torte lawyers went after the big memory manufactures of the late nineties and this is just the tip of the iceberg...there was a LOT MORE money involved in the settlements in the US.

I remember those days when trying to expand 512mb ram could cost you a small fortune.
Back then a 512mb memory was a big DRAM purchase, as most of the onboard DRAMs were 256K
and with most PCs that had 4 slots to populate with DRAM...512k or 1GB was the standard issue. 



> *Samsung, Micron, Infineon, Hynix, Elpida, NEC, Toshiba (who stopped producing DRAM in 2001…coincidence?)*. Several of them have been in court for this troublesome little situation before. Elpida coughed up more than $80 million in 2006 to settle a claim with the U.S. government. At around the same time, one Samsung exec agreed to a enter a guilty plea and serve eight months in jail and pay a $240,000 fine for his involvement.
> In total, $731 million in fines were handed out to four companies in the 2006 case. Add in the impending $310 million refund, and *the DRAM syndicate is now looking at more than a billion dollars for their transgressions.*





> Don’t go crazy with the quantities. Individual consumers won’t be the only ones filing claims, and there are probably a lot more large companies that can prove they spent money on price-fixed DRAM during that four-year span than average joe.
> 
> 
> It’s up to the court to decide who gets the cash and how much of it they get, but you may as well have a go at it. Assuming there’s anything left after the lawyers take their 25% cut and claw back fees and expenses, you *might score enough to buy lunch at a taco truck*


.

LOL! DRAM cartlel you say? 310 million and still the torte lawyers want more ..1 Billion???


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

sags said:


> I remember reading that Money Mart settled a multi-million dollar class action suit, by knocking $5 off the next 5 loans for customers..........LOL........
> 
> *At the end of class action lawsuits, the lawyers get new Maseratis and the plaintiffs get bus tickets home.*


... I wonder if there are class-action against lawyers who drum up these useless class-action suits in the first place?


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## Barwelle (Feb 23, 2011)

I don't know if I'd call them entirely useless. Yea, the lawyers get off with big pay for work they create out of thin air... And yea, it does very little to help consumers who were affected by whatever the lawsuit is about... But the fact that these lawsuits are being filed, and won, act as a disincentive for any future price fixing and whatnot.


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