What is the Litigation About?
Plaintiffs allege that the Defendants conspired to illegally raise the prices of prerecorded Music Products by implementing Minimum Advertised Price policies, in violation of State and Federal laws. All Defendants deny all claims of wrongdoing asserted by the Plaintiffs.
Who are the Defendants?
The Distributor Defendants are: Capitol Records, Inc. d/b/a EMI Music Distribution, Virgin Records America, Inc., and Priority Records LLC; 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; Universal Music & Video Distribution Corporation, Universal Music Group, Inc., and UMG Recordings, Inc.; Bertelsmann Music Group, Inc. and BMG Music; and Sony Music Entertainment Inc. The Retailer Defendants are: MTS, Inc. d/b/a Tower Records, Musicland Stores Corp., and Trans World Entertainment Corp.
What Benefits are Available?
The Defendants have agreed to pay a combination of cash and non-cash consideration. Defendants' combined cash payments total $67,375,000. In addition, Distributor Defendants will provide $75,700,000 worth of prerecorded music compact discs.
Cash Distribution
The cash paid by the Defendants, after the payment of attorneys' fees, litigation and Settlement administration costs, shall be distributed to consumers who purchased Music Products. The number of claims filed will determine the actual amount of the individual refund but will not exceed $20.00 per claimant. If the number of claims filed would result in refunds of less than $5.00 per claimant, there will be no cash distribution to individual consumers. Rather, the cash portion of the Settlement shall be distributed to not-for-profit, charitable, governmental or public entities to be used for music-related purposes or programs for the benefit of consumers who purchased Music Products.
IMPORTANT - If you are a member of the Settlement Group, you can only file one claim per person no matter how many Music Products you purchased.
Non-Cash Consideration
The compact discs will be distributed in each State,Territory, and Possession to not-for-profit, charitable, governmental or public entities to be used for music-related purposes or programs reasonably targeted to benefit a substantial number of persons who purchased prerecorded music compact discs, cassettes or vinyl albums from one or more retailers. The amount of product each State receives will be in proportion to that State's percentage of total population of the United States and its Territories and Possessions. All Defendants have also agreed to various injunctive provisions relating to the adoption and implementation of certain types of retail advertising and pricing policies.
― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 9 January 2003 18:00 (twenty-three years ago)