There’s just hours left for Washington consumers to claim a refund for certain electronics bought between 1998 and 2006. It’s tied to a lawsuit the state settled last year.
“This is one of our largest anti-trust cases we’ve had in state history and one of our largest settlements of any kind in Washington state history,” said WA Attorney General Bob Ferguson.
In 2010 the state sued several LCD screen manufacturers accused of fixing prices.
“The margin was around 20 percent. So they literally got together, CEOs on golf courses, over a series of many meetings and they raised the prices by about 20 percent and they locked it in across the board. Classic price fixing,” said Ferguson. “It’s a classic case of a powerful interest not playing by the rules and consumers being the ones who are harmed. So these cases settle for about 63 million dollars.”
The settlement includes any TV, computer monitor, laptop, cellphone or color-screen iPod that contain a flat panel screen and were bought between 1998 and 2006. Due to the size of the settlement, consumers have the chance to see a decent refund. Depending on how many claims are filed you could get back between 75 and a hundred bucks.
“Folks literally paid more money than they should have for those products. So frankly, it’s money that they deserve,” said Ferguson.
Attorney General Ferguson says they’ve had a huge response, nearly 28,000 people have filed claims.
But we’re talking TVs and phones so you know there are more of you out there.
If you would like to file a claim, click here. The deadline is September 30, 2016 at 11:59pm.
