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.