Lithium Ion Battery Products Direct Purchaser Antitrust Class Action
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Class Action Summary Lithium Ion Battery Products Direct Purchaser Antitrust Class Action This is not an official Court Notice. Information contained in this Summary is subject to change. If you or your business purchased Lithium Ion Battery Products from January 1, 2000 through May 31, 2011*, you may be entitled to participate in the $139.4 MILLION in class action settlements. Filing Deadline: April 26, 2018 Eligible Class Members: All persons or entities (excluding federal governmental entities and instrumentalities of the federal government, states and their subdivisions, agencies and instrumentalities) in the United States who or which purchased lithium ion batteries or products containing lithium ion batteries (hereafter collectively known as “Lithium Ion Battery Products” as defined below) directly from any of the “Defendants” listed below or any division, subsidiary, alleged co-conspirator or affiliate thereof from January 1, 2000 through May 31, 2011 (*the class period for the Panasonic settlement commences May 1, 2002). You are a direct class member if you purchased Lithium Ion Battery Products directly from one or more Defendants. There is a separate class action for purchases of Lithium Ion Battery Products indirectly from the Defendants. Definition of “Lithium Ion Battery Products”: This includes cylindrical or prismatic batteries that are rechargeable and use lithium ion technology. These batteries are an important source of portable energy for many products, such as notebook (or netbook) computers, digital cameras, camcorders, cell phones, digital music players, power tools, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobile terminals, as well as replacement batteries for each of the aforementioned products. “Defendants”: The Defendants include: 1) LG Chem, Ltd. and LG Chem America, Inc. (collectively, “LG”); 2) Samsung SDI Co. Ltd. and Samsung SDI America, Inc. (collectively, “Samsung”); 3) Panasonic Corporation and Panasonic Corporation of North America (collectively, “Panasonic”); 4) Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. and Sanyo North America Corporation (collectively, “Sanyo”); 5) Sony Corporation; Sony Energy Devices Corporation and Sony Electronics Inc. (collectively, “Sony”); 6) Hitachi Maxell, Ltd. and Maxell Corporation of America (collectively, “Hitachi Maxell”); 7) NEC Corporation (“NEC”); 8) TOKIN Corporation f/k/a NEC Tokin Corporation (“TOKIN”); and 9) Toshiba Corporation (“Toshiba”). Case History: Several lawsuits were filed in 2012 alleging the Defendants participated in a conspiracy to fix, raise, maintain and/or stabilize the prices of Lithium Ion Battery Products sold in the United States. In early 2013, these lawsuits were consolidated in the Northern District of California. The class has now entered into settlements with all Defendants including Sony ($19 million), Hitachi Maxell ($3.45 million), NEC ($1.1 million), Panasonic ($42.5 million and resolves all claims against Sanyo), Toshiba ($2.9 million), LG ($41 million), Samsung ($24.5 million and TOKIN ($4.95 million). The Sony, Hitachi Maxell, NEC, Panasonic and Toshiba settlements have received final Court approval. The LG, Samsung and TOKIN settlements are currently pending final Court approval. The settlement funds (less expenses, noticing costs and fees) will be distributed if and when final approval is granted on the LG, Samsung and TOKIN settlements as well as at the completion of a claims process. Class Counsel or the Settlement Administrator may be contacted for additional settlement information. You also may visit the court approved website. Please understand that you have the right to file on your own. To learn more about our services, visit www.FRSco.com The Services FRS Provides: Financial Recovery Strategies (FRS) is a class action claims management consultant; we are not a court appointed claims administrator or class counsel. If you hire FRS, FRS will work within your guidelines to manage the claims process: FRS will notify you when we believe that you may be eligible to participate in valuable settlements; we will take action to assure that all of your eligible business units (e.g., subsidiaries, divisions, acquisitions and divestitures) are included in the claims process; to reduce the support needed from your in-house staff, FRS will provide advice on what, if any, documents need to be collected and maintained, and, when requested, will assist in that effort; when required documents are not available or are too burdensome to collect, FRS will attempt to develop innovative alternatives to satisfy documentation requirements and then negotiate on your behalf to obtain approval of those alternatives; FRS will prepare, assemble and submit your claim package, and manage it throughout the claims processing phase, including working with you to address any concerns or questions the claims administrator may have; FRS will provide regular updates on the recovery process; FRS will review your payment to assure that it has not been under calculated; and FRS will follow up with you to assure that your recovery check is deposited. FRS’s recovery specialists are always available to answer any questions you may have. How to Retain FRS: If you wish to hire FRS to file and manage a claim on your behalf, you must return a signed copy of an Authorization Agreement. Before doing so, it is important that you understand its terms and make sure that your basic information at the top of the page is correct. Financial Recovery Strategies 80 Wesley Street, South Hackensack, NJ 07606 www.FRSco.com Phone: (201) 853-0300 Fax: (201) 853-0301 .