Consumerist
lawsuits
Posts Tagged “
Class Action
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It's been a few weeks without a BPA story, so here goes: Four parents in Ohio have sued Evenflo, Avent America, Handicraft, Playtex Products, and Novartis for using bisphenol A in their baby products. They're seeking class action status. [Washington Post]
lawsuits
att
ATT Settles Class Action Over Fraudulent Ringtone Charges
Thanks to AT&T settling a recent class-action, the era of third-party scammers cramming consumers with fraudulent subscriptions to ringtone, hookup text and other stupid content services may soon be over. AT&T Customers can claim refunds for wrongful charges from up to 3 of their bills between 1/1/04 and 5/30/08. The lawyers will get $4.3 million. AT&T will now require subscriptions to 3rd party-services with recurring fees to be confirmed by responding to a text message. 3rd party services will also have to send a monthly reminder with unsubscribe info. The firm has filed similar suits against Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. Claim forms and more info at thirdpartycontentrefund.com.
AT&T settles suit over 3rd-party cell phone fees [AP via MrConsumer]
(Photo: Getty)
settlements
AT&T Agrees To Refund Unauthorized Third-Party Charges On Cellphone Bills
AT&T Mobility has agreed to offer refunds to customers who were charged for third-party services like ringtones, although if you were frequently a victim of this you'll quickly exhaust your refund quota: "Customers will able to claim refunds for spurious charges that appeared on up to three of their monthly bills between Jan. 1, 2004, and May 30, 2008." AT&T should be sending out a notification to its customers "soon," but you can already download a refund request. More »
settlements
Today Is The Last Day To File A Claim In The Credit Card Foreign Transaction Fee Class Action
If you were planning on filing a claim in the credit card foreign transaction fee class action, today is the last day to do it. More »
hotel ratings
Hotwire Facing Possible Class Action Lawsuit For Selling 2-Star Rooms As 3-Star
A reader forwarded us an email that indicates a class action motion is being prepared against Hotwire, the discount travel company, for promoting hotel rooms at artifically high ratings. On Hotwire, you can't preview the hotel before booking, so the star rating is really all you have to go on—and there's at least anecdotal evidence online that Hotwire has been known to be more lenient in its rating system. Though Ryan says he's gotten some good deals through Hotwire, he adds, "I do recall booking a room around Christmas in the 2.5 to 3 star range and getting La Quinta (which as we all know is spanish for 'near a Denny's'), which is listed as a two star hotel." More »
lawsuits
Woman Sues Playtex Over Bisphenol-A
A woman in Arkansas has filed a federal lawsuit against Playtex Products over their use of BPA in plastic baby bottles, claiming that the company "failed to adequately disclose that its plastic bottle products are formulated using BPA," according to MSNBC. The suit is seeking class action status, which would make it the second BPA-related class action lawsuit after the one in California against Nalge Nunc International (the makers of Nalgene bottles)—although the chemical is still not classified as toxic in the U.S. More »
The Supreme Court rejected T-Mobile's appeal in 3 cases yesterday, which means an earlier federal ruling that says states "can refuse to enforce arbitration clauses if they include bans on class actions" will stand. Now T-Mobile has to go back to state courts to deal with the class action lawsuits against it. [Associated Press]
settlements
Pet Food Companies Agree To $24 Million Settlement Over Killer Pet Food
After a two-week delay to make sure the language of the settlement met U.S. and Canadian law, about 30 pet food makers have agreed to pay out $24 million to customers whose pets were killed or injured in the tainted food fiasco a year ago. Victims will be reimbursed for expenses, including vet and burial/cremation bills. Additionally, "pet owners can request reimbursement for the cost or fair-market value—whichever is higher—of a deceased pet or one purchased in replacement. Owners who don't have documentation of expenses can get as much as $900 each. All claims are subject to review." More »
cellphones
To Avoid Billions In Lawsuits, Cellphone Companies Propose Tepid Early Termination Fee Reform
In exchange for amnesty from a series of potentially billions of dollars in class action lawsuits over early termination fees (ETFs), the cellphone companies have proposed some namby-pamby ETF reforms to the FCC. Their ideas:
- Pro-rating early termination fees, so the cancellation fee goes down every month
- Customers can cancel without ETF up to 30 days after singing contract, or 10 days after receiving their first bill
- The overall fee would be slightly reduced
Cellphone companies main justification for early termination fees is that they have to recover the costs of selling cellphones at a discounted rate. True, but why then do I get charged an ETF if even if my cellphone was bought off eBay?
More »
class action
Today Is The Last Day To Join The DeBeers Diamond Class-Action Settlement
If you bought a diamond between January 1, 1994 and March 31, 2006, today is the last day to join the DeBeers class action settlement. It doesn't matter whether or not the diamond was bought from DeBeers, the diamond could have been bought from anywhere. The lawsuit contends that DeBeers uses its monopoly over most of the world's diamond mines to artificially inflate the price of diamonds and engages in other anti-competitive behaviors as well. It's expected that around $135,432,500 will be divided amongst all the eligible consumers. You can file claims online here.
(Thanks to Michael!)
(Photo: clagnut)
class action
GSK Sued For Fraudulently Delaying Generic Version Of Wellbutrin
A class action lawsuit has been filed accusing GlaxoSmithKline of lying to the Patent office and dickering with fake patent litigation against generic drug makers to fraudulently stymie generic versions of Wellbutrin from hitting the market. The lawsuit applies to people who directly bought Wellbutrin from GSK in 100 or 150mg hits between Jan 24, 2002 and June 30, 2006. Obviously, the long GSK could keep a generic version of their drug off the market, the more money they could make. People interested in joining could probably contact the firm of Roda and Nast, lead plaintiff team, for more information.
Antitrust Class Action Certified Against GlaxoSmithKline [Law.com]
(Photo: Fujoshi)
credit cards
Credit Card Class Action: Get More Money Back Using Your Digital Camera
If you traveled abroad anytime between February 1, 1996 and November 8, 2006, your credit card company probably owes you money, but how much? Under a class action suing credit card companies for double-dipping on foreign transaction fees, the best bet for getting your the money, if you don't have detailed records of all your foreign transactions, is making an estimate based on how many days you were out of the country. One good way for shutterbugs to figure this out, says Delicious Baby, is to look through your vacation/travel photos on your computer. Most likely, they have digital timestamps you can use to figure out how long you were away. Now figuring out your refund is as easy and fun as going through your old photos. The due date for filing claims at ccfsettlement.com is May 30th.
Easy Hack for Getting a Refund from your Credit Card [DeliciousBaby]
class action
Get Half Off New Mp3 Player In Creative MP3 Player Class Action
If you bought a Creative MP3 player in the past seven years, you may be eligible under a proposed class action settlement to get a new Creative MP3 player for 50% off or a 20% off certificate for anything at Creative's online store. The suit alleges that Creative marketed its mp3 players as having 7% more storage capacity than it actually had. Anyone who bought a Creative MP3 player from any US store between May 5, 2001 and April 30, 2008 is part of the class. Claim forms can be found here. (Thanks to Kevin!)
lifelock
Class Action Filed Against Lifelock For Deceptive Advertising
A class action has been filed against LifeLock, the identity protection company whose CEO is so confident in the credit report fraud alerts it places that CEO Richard "Todd" Davis puts his Social Security Number in the company advertisements) The suit says that Lifelock misrepresents the level of security that the company provides, and its "$1 million guarantee" in case of identity theft is a bunch of hooey. In addition, it says the CEO's personal information is currently being misused by at least 20 different identity thieves. Not surprising coming from a company that was founded based on an idea one of the co-founders had while sitting in a jail cell for an unpaid $16,000 gambling debt.
lawsuits
First BPA Class Action Lawsuit Announced!
It begins! A woman in California, no doubt under the expert legal advice of people who only have her best interests at heart, has filed a lawsuit against Nalgene alleging that they "knew, but downplayed risks, that a toxic substance in its popular... plastic sports bottles could leach into the bottles' contents and sicken consumers." The woman says she used Nalgene bottles for herself and her two daughters for years.More »
class action
Subprime Meltdown Class Action Lawsuits On Rampage
Behind the scenes of the subprime and credit crunch hooplah, subprime-related class action lawsuits have been quietly building up a massive head. Navigant Consulting broke down the numbers on the gathering storm that will take years to dissipate:
- There are 448 subprime related federal lawsuits as of March 31 2008
- 170 federal lawsuits were filed in Q1 2008, vs 181 total filed in the last 6 months of 2007
- The Savings and Loan scandal of the 90's resulted in 599 lawsuits
- 57% involved at least one Fortune 1000 company
- 46% of the subprime related class action lawsuits are brought by borrowers
- 42% of those are related to disclosures made at loan origination
The Subprime Litigation Tsunami: Are We Dealing with Case Overload? [DSNEWS]
(Photo: Getty)
A California court has upheld the scrawny Netflix "throttling" settlement from 2006. That was when Netflix settled a class-action lawsuit that alleged they intentionally slowed down the rental rates of high-renting customers. The settlement only really benefited lawyers and Netflix, but it stands. [Reuters]