Missing Flash Memory Capacity

We challenged flash memory manufacturers' practice of overstating the capacity of flash memory devices. For example, a 512MB flash memory card has only about 488MB of usable capacity. The reason is that the manufacturers define "MB" to equal 1,000,000 bytes, while cameras and computers define "MB" to equal 1,078,576 bytes. The manufactures also define "GB" to equal 1,000,000,000 bytes, while computer operating systems, cameras and MP3 players define "GB" to equal 1,073,741,824 bytes. The difference resulted in 4-7% missing memory.

We obtained a court-approved settlement that provided all customers with refunds of 5% of the purchase price. It also required the manufacturers to change their packaging to include their definition of "megabyte" and "gigabyte."