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Optical Disc Drive Price Fixing

Case Name:

Neil Godfrey. v. Sony Corporation et al.

Court:

Supreme Court of British Columbia

Date Filed:

September 27, 2010

Class Members:

Non-Umbrella Purchasers: All persons resident in Canada who purchased optical disc drives (“ODD”) manufactured or supplied by the defendants in this action, or products that contain ODD (“ODD Products”) in which the ODD was manufactured or supplied by the defendants in this action, in the period from January 1, 2004 through January 1, 2010.

Umbrella Purchasers: All persons resident in Canada who purchased optical disc drives ("ODD") that were not manufactured or supplied by the defendants in this action, or products that contain ODD ("ODD Products") in which the ODD was not manufactured or supplied by the defendants in this action, in the period from January 1, 2004 through January 1, 2010.

Co-counsel:

Charles M. Wright, of Siskinds LLP

Jeff Orenstein, of Consumer Law Group

VIEW STATUS UPDATES

This class action relates to the alleged price fixing of optical disc drives (“ODD”) or products that contained ODD between January 1, 2004 and January 1, 2010.

Settlement Approval

On December 3, 2020, the BC Court certified a settlement class regarding a settlement entered into with Panasonic Corporation, Panasonic Corporation of North America and Panasonic Canada Inc. (collectively “Panasonic”). The Panasonic settlement (the “Panasonic Settlement Agreement”) is subject to Court approval in British Columbia and Quebec. Hearings to approve the Panasonic Settlement Agreement will be held as follows:

British Columbia: at the Vancouver courthouse on March 12, 2021 at 10:00 a.m.
Quebec: at the Montreal courthouse on April 7, 2021 at 9:30 a.m.

For details of the Panasonic Settlement Agreement and settlement hearings, please see the Long Form Notices (English and French) located under the “Important Documents” heading. The deadline to object is March 8, 2021.

Contested Certification

This action has now been certified. Please see Reasons for Judgment of Mr. Justice Masuhara pronounced May 13, 2016 below. The Judgement was upheld on appeal to the BC Court of Appeal and by the Supreme Court of Canada.

You are a member of this certified class action if you are a resident of Canada and fall into one of the below categories:

Non-Umbrella Purchasers:

All persons resident in Canada who purchased optical disc drives (“ODD”) manufactured or supplied by the defendants in this action, or products that contain ODD (“ODD Products”) in which the ODD was manufactured or supplied by the defendants in this action, in the period from January 1, 2004 through January 1, 2010.

Umbrella Purchasers:

All persons resident in Canada who purchased optical disc drives (“ODD”) that were not manufactured or supplied by the defendants in this action, or products that contain ODD (“ODD Products”) in which the ODD was not manufactured or supplied by the defendants in this action, in the period from January 1, 2004 through January 1, 2010.

ODD means a device that reads and/or writes to CD-ROM, CD-R/RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray R/RW, and HD DVD.

ODD Product means computers, video game consoles and ODDs that are designed to be attached externally to devices such as computers.

For more information, please see the Long Form Notice (English and French) located under the “Important Documents” heading.

Important Documents:

For more information please contact Sharon Wong, Paralegal at (604) 689-7555 or by email at [email protected].