| Reimbursement for Music Consumers is On Its Way |
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| Home Theater News Industry-Trade News | |
| Written by Kate Regan | |
| Wednesday, 25 February 2004 | |
 Music
consumers may be seeing reimbursement checks in their mailboxes in the
near future thanks to the settlement in the Compact Disc Minimum
Advertised Price Antitrust Litigation. Reimbursement checks were sent
out beginning February 20, 2004 and will be arriving in the mail within
the next two weeks.Checks will not exceed a maximum payment of $20 and all claimants will receive the same amount regardless of the number of musical products they purchased during the time period. Claimants living in California can look forward to receiving a reimbursement check for $13.89 in the near future. The final judgment and order that was issued on June 13, 2003 called for record companies and some music product distributors, including Tower Records, to give a combined total of over $67 million in cash consideration for the settlement. Along with cash reimbursement, record companies were required to give over $75 million in non-cash consideration. Non-cash consideration came in the form of prerecorded CDs that were distributed to non-profit, charitable, governmental or public entities. The CDs are supposed to be used for music-related purposes and/or programs. The settlement was the product of the lawsuit that was brought against a number of record companies and music product distributors in January 2003. The suit claimed that the record companies and distributors conspired to artificially raise the prices of CDs, cassettes and vinyl albums during the time period between January 1995 and December 22, 2000. People that purchased a CD, cassette or vinyl album between that time period, were eligible to receive compensation between $5 and $20 if they filed a valid claim at www.musiccdsettlement.com or by mail. (The deadline to submit a claim for reimbursement has already passed.) The proposed settlement of the lawsuits was brought by Attorneys General of 43 U.S. states, Commonwealths and Territories. Source: www.musiccdsettlement.com. Related links: http://www.audiorevolution.com/news/0103/09.settlement.shtml http://www.musiccdsettlement.com Like this article? Bookmark and share with any of the sites below.        |
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