Did you buy a CD between 1995-2000? You may be a winner!

[JohnT]

This Web site was established to provide information about a proposed Settlement of lawsuits brought by Attorneys General of 43 states, Commonwealths and Territories, and by counsel for the Plaintiff Settlement Class entitled In re: Compact Disc Minimum Advertised Price Antitrust Litigation.


The lawsuits, which are currently pending in the United States District Court for the District of Maine, relate to the retail pricing of prerecorded music compact discs, cassettes or vinyl albums (collectively known as prerecorded Music Products).

You may be a member of the Settlement Group and your rights against Defendants may be affected if you are a person or entity that purchased these prerecorded Music Products from a retail store during the period of January 1, 1995 through December 22, 2000.

http://www.musiccdsettlement.com/english/default.htm

So, because the record industry was charging minimum prices for CD's, eh? Well, if you bought a CD between 1995 and 2000, you are entitled to a refund of not more than $20 and not less than $5. If the number of people who apply makes the amount per person go under $5, all proceeds (about $67 million) goes to charity. It's a win-win situation for all!*

*All Americans that is. Sorry, Euros.

[JohnT]

By the way, I already signed up. You have until March 3rd to do so.

Here are the record companies that were sued:

Capitol Records, Inc. d/b/a EMI Music Distribution, Virgin Records America, Inc., and Priority Records LLC (collectively, “EMD”)

Time Warner, Inc., Warner-Elektra-Atlantic Corp., WEA, Inc., Warner Music Group, Inc., Warner Bros. Records, Inc., Atlantic Recording Corporation, Elektra Entertainment Group, Inc., and Rhino Entertainment Company (collectively “WEA”)

Universal Music & Video Distribution Corporation, Universal Music Group, Inc., and UMG Recordings, Inc. (collectively “Universal”)

Bertelsmann Music Group, Inc. and BMG Music (collectively “BMG”)

Sony Music Entertainment Inc.

Distributors:

Music Products, MTS, Inc. d/b/a Tower Records (“Tower”), Musicland Stores Corp. (“Musicland”) and Trans World Entertainment Corp. (“Trans World”)

[Urban Ranger]

Damn! Nothing for us Asia-Pacific types?

[JohnT]

No. That's what y'all deserve for not being litigation-mad like the US.

[Zero]

I dont think I bought a cd since 1994ish.

Im trying to remember when I bought my 233Mhz Pentium II with 28.8k modem...

[JohnT]

They don't ask for proof that you bought one. You just have to say you did.

Like me, for example. All I buy are used records and classical CDs, which I doubt are the ones being targeted for this suit.

[JohnT]

Oh, btw, you bought that Pentium way after 1994. I bought a P-133 state of the art machine for almost $2 grand the day the Braves won the World Series... and that was October, 1995.

[Dauphin]

What if I bought the CDs whilst in America?

[Thrawn05]

God Bless Transperent Capitalism.


I'm in.

[Thrawn05]

I take that back, after reviewing the site I could not find out who these people are, so IMHO, it's a good chance it's just a ID scam like many other "claim file" websites for lawsuits.

I'll pass.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by JohnT
No. That's what y'all deserve for not being litigation-mad like the US.

Curses!

What if I bought imported US stuff?

[Thrawn05]

QUOTE:
________________________________________
Originally posted by Urban Ranger


Curses!

What if I bought imported US stuff?
________________________________________

According this site, you must a legal residence of the US and it's territories. And odds are you don't live in Guam.

[Dauphin]

Is the UK a US territory?

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Thrawn05
I take that back, after reviewing the site I could not find out who these people are, so IMHO, it's a good chance it's just a ID scam like many other "claim file" websites for lawsuits.

I'll pass.

Hmmm. The Associated Press doesn't think so:

http://www.gnutellanews.com/article/5936

Your CD Settlement $$$ Going Begging?
By Paul Queary, Associated Press


OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) Suppose someone was handing out $20 bills and almost nobody wanted one? That's roughly what's happening with a massive price-fixing settlement involving states and compact disc companies.

The deal calls for payments of as much as $20 for customers who bought CDs between 1995 and 2000. But so far, only a few people have signed up, and officials fear the money will go begging.

In September, the five top U.S. distributors of compact discs and three large music retailers agreed to pay $143 million in cash and CDs to settle allegations they cheated consumers by fixing prices.

The lawsuit alleged that the companies upset with low prices charged by some stores conspired with retailers to set music prices at a minimum level, effectively raising the retail prices consumers paid for CDs.

Part of the settlement about $44 million in cash is earmarked to pay customers from $5 to $20, depending on how many people wind up dividing the money.

By the end of December, only about 30,000 people nationwide had applied for a piece of the pie, a tiny fraction of the number the settlement could handle.

“The response thus far has been fairly abysmal,” said Washington Attorney General Christine Gregoire, who's been on morning radio shows to promote the settlement.

Gregoire was among the attorneys general of 41 states and commonwealths who accused record companies of conspiring with music distributors to boost the prices of CDs between 1995 and 2000.

The companies settled rather than wage a costly legal battle.

The settlement's Web site has been up for a month, and legal notices have been published in TV Guide, Parade and other national magazines, but the response rate has been very low, said Tina Kondo, a senior assistant attorney general in Gregoire's office.

“I guess people don't like to read legal notices,” Kondo said.

Gregoire and other officials hope a radio advertising campaign set to launch soon will boost interest in the settlement.

Anyone who bought a CD, cassette tape or vinyl record at a retail store between 1995 and 2000 is eligible. The application window closes March 3.

You don't even need a receipt to prove you bought CDs by Hole, Metallica or Shania Twain in 1998. Just click to the settlement's Web site, answer three questions and fill in your name and address. But don't try to recoup the entire cost of your music collection only one claim per customer.

While 41 states took on the music companies, consumers in all 50 states are eligible for the cash.

There is one catch. If more than about 8.8 million people apply, in which case the per-person share would drop below $5, the customer part of the settlement is to be canceled because sending out such small checks would be too expensive.

Instead, the money will go to public entities and nonprofit organizations in each state to promote music programs. The settlement already calls for those organizations to receive 5.5 million CDs valued at $75.7 million.

The music distributors participating in the deal are Bertelsmann Music Group, EMI Music Distribution, Warner-Elektra-Atlantic Corp., Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group. Also included in the deal were three national retail chains: Trans World Entertainment, Tower Records and Musicland Stores, a division of Best Buy Co. Inc.


Read the full details of the settlement here.

[JohnT]

Also, the standard urban legend debunkers say it is true:

http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/bl-cd-settlement.htm

And if you go to snopes.com, they'll confirm the story too - just type in "CD Settlement" in the search box.

Claim: CD purchasers can apply on a web site to claim their share of the settlement of a price-fixing lawsuit.

Status: True.

Origins: So
many bogus "something for nothing" promises see wide circulation on the Internet that it's almost amusing to see one that's actually true yet is being largely ignored. Gullible netizens have been forwarding endless variations of the Bill Gates e-mail tracking hoax back and forth for years, but now that there's a real opportunity to collect $20 simply by spending a few seconds entering some information into a web site, the public has largely been too skeptical to try it, thinking the whole thing must be some kind of scam.

For years consumers have been complaining about the relatively high prices of CDs (because they were generally priced much higher than vinyl records, even though they were just as cheap, if not cheaper, to manufacture). Finally someone did something about it: 41 states filed suit against five CD distributors and three music retailers, charging that the companies had conspired to fix minimum prices for CDs. In September 2002 the parties agreed to settle the lawsuit, and one of the terms of the settlement was that the companies agreed to reimburse customers who purchased music products between 1995 and 2000 by paying out a total of about $44 million in refunds.

Anyone who bought a CD (or a record or a cassette) between 1995 and 2000 is eligible to claim his portion of the settlement by signing up before 3 March 2003; not even a receipt is necessary. Consumers can simply go to the CD MAP Settlement site, click on the link for filing a claim, and supply the requested information. Many people have balked at having to supply several items of personal information (home addresses, birth dates, and the last four digits Social Security numbers), fearing the site is a data-collecting scam, but the information is necessary in order to distribute the payment checks and ensure that no one files more than one claim.

How much each applicant receives depends upon how many consumers end up filing for refunds, creating a bit of a "tragedy of the commons" situation. If few people apply (as of the end of December 2002 only 30,000 had signed up), everyone receives the maximum payment of $20. As more people apply the individual share lessens; if more than 8.8 million people eventually sign up, the individual share drops below $5 and consumers don't get anything. (The cost of mailing out over 8.8 million checks was deemed too expensive, so if the number of applicants reaches that total the settlement money will be donated to public entities and nonprofit organizations rather than distributed directly to consumers.)

So, claim your money while you can. And hope nobody else is paying attention.

Last updated: 7 January 2003