If you would like further information about any of our cases,
please contact us.
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American Funds Mutual
Funds. We
represent investors in American Funds mutual funds. The
complaint alleges that American Funds paid undisclosed
kickbacks to broker/dealers for pushing these funds on
investors, using investor assets. The defendants have already
been sued by the California Attorney General's Office for
this practice. If you invested in any American Funds, please contact
us.
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Seagate Technologies. We represent purchasers of Seagate
hard disk drives. The suit claims that Seagate overstates
the capacity of its drives by approximately 7%. For example,
a Seagate 100GB drive has only about 93.02GB of usable
capacity when attached to or installed in a personal computer.
The reason is that Seagate defines “GB” to
equal 1,000,000,000 bytes, while computer operating systems
define “GB” to equal 1,073,741,824 bytes. If
you purchased a Seagate drive, and it has less memory than
promised on the packaging, please contact
us.
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Hansens Beverages and Blue Sky
Natural Beverages. We
represent purchasers of Blue Sky Natural Beverages, a division
of Hansens. Cans of Blue Sky Beverages state that they
are from Santa Fe, New Mexico and that they were canned
under the authority of a New Mexico corporation. The complaint
alleges that the beverages actually come from Corona, California,
near Los Angeles.
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Wells Fargo Mutual Funds. The suit contended that Wells Fargo secretly gave brokers
kickbacks for pushing clients into specified mutual funds. The court
certified a class of investors in three Wells Fargo Advantage
mutual funds: Small Cap Growth, Diversified Equity,
and Montgomery Emerging Markets. Wells Fargo agreed
to settle the claim for a payment of $1.15 million, which
was distributed to investors, attorneys, and others under
a court-ordered allocation plan.
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Hotwire, Orbitz, Expedia.com, Travelocity, Priceline,
Hotels.com. Online hotel reservations companies
charge customers “taxes and fees” on hotel
reservations. But they send the government only
some of taxes they charge, and they pocket the difference. Cases
are pending in courts around the country.
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FoxHollow Technologies. This suit claims
that FoxHollow’s chairman told the company’s
management to use FoxHollow assets to acquire another
company he owned, or else they would be fired. The
acquisition was not in FoxHollow’s interests. Investors
were kept in the dark. When management rejected
the acquisition and were fired, the company’s stock
lost half its market value, more than $500 million. If
you have owned shares in FoxHollow, please contact
us.
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House of Prime Rib Restaurant. We
represent employees and former employees of the House
of Prime Rib in San Francisco. The suit alleges
that the restaurant forced employees to work off the
clock and without breaks. It seeks unpaid wages
and penalties. It also seeks damages for wrongful
termination of employees who complained about the company’s
unfair wage practices. The San Francisco Superior
Court has certified a class of servers, bussers and carvers
who worked at the House of Prime Rib before 2003. If
you were an employee of the House of Prime Rib, please contact
us.
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Netflix. Netflix promised its customers “unlimited
DVD rentals” for a monthly flat fee, with “one
day delivery.” This suit claimed that, in
fact, the more quickly a customer watched and returned
his movies, the more slowly Netflix sent the next one. It
alleged that Netflix’s goal was to limit monthly
usage and keep its costs down. A court-approved
settlement will require Netflix to change its advertising
to better disclose its delivery procedures. In
addition, Netflix will provide class members free movie
rentals worth over $75 million: a free month of membership
to all former members, and a free upgraded month of membership
to current members. The claims period for the settlement
has expired, but the settlement is on appeal. The
benefit will not be provided until the appeal is rejected
or dismissed. You can track the progress of the
appeal here. For
further information, visit www.netflix.com/settlement.
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SanDisk, Lexar Media, P.N.Y. Electronics, Fujifilm,
and Kodak. We challenged flash memory manufacturers’ practice
of overstating the capacity of flash memory devices
by 4%. For example, a 512MB flash memory card
has only about 488MB of usable capacity. The
manufacturers define “MB” to equal 1,000,000
bytes, while cameras and computers define “MB” to
equal 1,078,576 bytes. A court-approved settlement
provided customers with refunds of 5% of the purchase
price. It also required the manufacturers to
change their packaging to include their definition
of megabyte.”
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Western Digital. We represented people
who bought Western Digital hard disk drives separately
from their personal computers. The suit claimed that
Western Digital overstated the capacity of its drives
by approximately 7%. For example, the suit alleged
that a Western Digital 100GB drive has only about 93.02GB
of usable capacity. Western Digital and the rest
of the hard disk drive industry define “GB” to
equal 1,000,000,000 bytes, while most operating systems
define “GB” to equal 1,073,741,824 bytes.
Western Digital denied all liability and wrongdoing. A
court-approved settlement required Western Digital to
disclose its definition on its packaging and marketing
materials. It also required Western Digital to
permit an estimated one million purchasers to download
free backup and recovery software, which had an estimated
retail value of at least $30. The settlement was not
an admission of wrongdoing on the part of Western Digital. The
claims period has closed.
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BankOne. We represented customers of BankOne
who were charged cash advance fees for certain online
transactions through PayPal. In a settlement, BankOne
agreed to make its cardmember agreement clearer about
when fees would be charged, and to refund fees paid to
anyone who complained.
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