NOTICE OF CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT

[DiamanteBlu]

I wasn't sure where to post this so if it is in the wrong place I hope Ali will move it.

In any case, yesterday I received this class action settlement notice in the mail. I thought you might be interested. Consumers who made diamond purchases between 1/1/1994 and 3/31/2006 are part of the settlement class.

"UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY

SHAWN SULLIVAN, et al. Plaintiffs,
vs.
DB INVESTMENTS, INC., et al. Defendants.

Civil Action Index No. 04-02819 (SRC)
NOTICE OF CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT

If You Purchased A Diamond Or Diamond Jewelry From January 1, 1994 To March 31, 2006, You May Have A Claim To Receive Money From A Proposed Class Action Settlement.
READ THIS ENTIRE NOTICE CAREFULLY. IT MAY AFFECT YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS, INCLUDING YOUR RIGHT TO SHARE IN A $295 MILLION PROPOSED SETTLEMENT.

A group of class action lawsuits claim that the De Beers group of companies conspired to fix, raise and control the price of gem diamonds, monopolized the rough gem diamond market, and issued false and misleading advertising. The lawsuits claim that this violated federal and state antitrust and unfair competition laws, and state consumer protection and deceptive advertising laws. They also claim that as a result, diamond purchasers paid more for diamonds and diamond jewelry. De Beers denies these allegations and believes that it has valid defenses to the lawsuits. De Beers has decided to settle the lawsuits to avoid the uncertainty and expense of further litigation.
The Settlement will create a $295 million Settlement Fund. If you purchased diamonds between January 1, 1994 and March 31, 2006, you maybe able to make a claim to be paid from the Settlement Fund. . . ."

Here is the link with the details.

 

[door knob solitaire]

Yippee...maybe the DoorKnob was insured afterall!! Woo Hoo!! §

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Thanks for posting this. It''ll be interesting to see if the diamond I purchased in 11/94 qualitifies for me to be part of the settlement.

 

[JohnQuixote]

The ad campaign and written notice began in late December. For anyone interested, here is a page of FAQs on the JVC site.

 

[JohnQuixote]

Update

New FAQs with recent additions.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Deleted . . .

 

[strmrdr]

I missed the cut off by 5 days.
So I should file my own....
I dont agree with the concept of class actions anyway so wouldnt have claimed it anyway.....

 

[DiamondExpert]

I''ll bet the lawyers can hardly wait to get their hands on all that $$$ - as for the rest...talk about trickle down !!!

 

[Gypsy]

Interesting, my diamond was purchased in July of 2004. Wonder if I qualify. Will have to do more digging.

 

[strmrdr]

Date: 1/11/2008 4:42:39 PM
Author: Gypsy
Interesting, my diamond was purchased in July of 2004. Wonder if I qualify. Will have to do more digging.

yep as long as it was purchased in the US you do.

 

[isaku5]

My diamond was purchased in the States, but I don''t live there . Out of luck, I guess.

 

[DiamanteBlu]

Date: 1/11/2008 4:42:39 PM
Author: Gypsy
Interesting, my diamond was purchased in July of 2004. Wonder if I qualify. Will have to do more digging.

The dates for consumer purchases are 1/1/96 - 3/31/06.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 1/11/2008 4:42:39 PM
Author: Gypsy
Interesting, my diamond was purchased in July of 2004. Wonder if I qualify. Will have to do more digging.

Yep, you do qualify as do I since my purchase was in Nov. of 1994.

If you scroll down to question 19 on here: https://diamondsclassaction.com/FAQ.htm#19 you''ll be able to find a link that calculates how much you''ll be paid. Of course, you may not actually get that amount. I''ve heard numerous stories where hardly any amount is paid out once all the fees are factored in.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 1/11/2008 6:56:09 PM
Author: DiamanteBlu

Date: 1/11/2008 4:42:39 PM
Author: Gypsy
Interesting, my diamond was purchased in July of 2004. Wonder if I qualify. Will have to do more digging.

The dates for consumer purchases are 1/1/96 - 3/31/06.

The home page states "All persons located in the United States who purchased any diamond or diamond jewelry or other products containing gem diamonds for personal use and not for resale between January 1, 1994 and March 31, 2006. For example, Consumers include people who purchased diamond jewelry to wear or to give as a gift. "

https://diamondsclassaction.com/index.htm

 

[DiamanteBlu]

Date: 1/11/2008 5:22:36 PM
Author: isaku5
My diamond was purchased in the States, but I don''t live there . Out of luck, I guess.

Looks like it.

Unless you used a US address when you bought it . . .

 

[JeffG]

When filling this out online...it says "diamonds only or mixed gems" (or something like that..), and then purchase price...all of this on the "engagement ring" side....does it mean the purchase price of JUST the diamond or the whole ring? Its kinda vague, and i''m sure alot of ppl that just bought a ring in a store for $XXXX don''t know the break down of the diamond and the setting.

Just curious what you guys are putting down.

 

[DiamanteBlu]

Date: 1/12/2008 2:20:43 PM
Author: JeffG
When filling this out online...it says ''diamonds only or mixed gems'' (or something like that..), and then purchase price...all of this on the ''engagement ring'' side....does it mean the purchase price of JUST the diamond or the whole ring? Its kinda vague, and i''m sure alot of ppl that just bought a ring in a store for $XXXX don''t know the break down of the diamond and the setting.
Just curious what you guys are putting down.

If you bought a whole e-ring in one transaction and the e-ring only has diamonds in it you check "diamonds only" if it also has other stones you check "mixed stones". You then put the purchase price of the whole ring.

If you only bought a diamond then you just list its price on the "loose diamonds" line. If you also bought a setting that had diamonds in it then you would list that on the engagement ring line, check the appropriate box and fill in the price.

 

[ringabling]

so this would include tennis bracelets, studs, etc. . . .
Almost all our purchases were in this time period, I guess it could be worth checking into{?}

 

[DiamanteBlu]

Anything with diamonds in it bought during the period qualifies.

 

[Rank Amateur]

This thread is an ideal one for a sticky so that anyone visiting RT will see it.

There must be 100s of people here to whom this notice is worth 100s of dollars.

Anyone have the payout figured out?

 

[DiamondExpert]

I think end users shouldn''t get their hopes up. The buzz in the trade is that the lawers and large siteholders will get the lion''s share, followed by wholesalers, retailers and then the buying public.

 

[Rank Amateur]

If I''m reading it correctly, the Consumer portion is earmarked at $135M minus 25% lawyers'' windfall. This amounts to about $100M to the consumers. The thing I can''t begin to guess is how many qualifying claims they will have. Say they have over $1B in claims you might get 10% on of your qualifying purchases, which might be 40% of the purchase price. Even 4% on a $5000 diamond is $200. Not bad for filling out an online form.

 

[Dee*Jay]

OK, let me make sure I understand this. It doesn't matter *where* I got the pieces from (assuming it was not DeBeers and it occured in the US), correct? So I could have purchased X number of items from any number of stores/jewelers (B&M or internet) during that period and I can put them on the form? I don't see any request to submit receipts--or am I just missing it? And about the mixed gemstone items, for instance, I have a diamond and sapphire three stone ring--do I put the value of the whole ring on there? It seems so based on what I'm reading but I wonder if that's correct...

 

[bebe]

DeeJay, I filled it out. I think I remember if the piece/stone was over a certain dollar amount
(10,000,? can''t remember)you have to mail a copy of the receipt. And when you fill it out it asks
is the piece all diamonds or mixed with other stones. It was very easy and very fast.

 

[Dee*Jay]

Date: 1/13/2008 1:00:17 AM
Author: bebe
DeeJay, I filled it out. I think I remember if the piece/stone was over a certain dollar amount
(10,000,? can''t remember)you have to mail a copy of the receipt. And when you fill it out it asks
is the piece all diamonds or mixed with other stones. It was very easy and very fast.

Thanks bebe! I''ll print out the form and follow the directions (what a novel idea, LOL!) and see what happens. Maybe I could use any $ I get back to buy some new bling.

 

[Lynn B]

Date: 1/11/2008 2:18:07 PM
Author: strmrdr
I missed the cut off by 5 days.
So I should file my own....
I dont agree with the concept of class actions anyway so wouldnt have claimed it anyway.....

Storm,
Why don''t you agree with the concept of class action suits?

Personally, I plan to file. Any $$$ I might happen to get back can be used for... *more bling*!!! I say, why not?!

 

[DiamanteBlu]

Date: 1/11/2008 6:56:09 PM
Author: DiamanteBlu

Date: 1/11/2008 4:42:39 PM
Author: Gypsy
Interesting, my diamond was purchased in July of 2004. Wonder if I qualify. Will have to do more digging.

The dates for consumer purchases are 1/1/96 - 3/31/06.

Crap. TYPO ALERT! I meant to type 1/1/94 - 3/31/06. So sorry.

 

[DiamanteBlu]

Date: 1/12/2008 11:29:51 PM
Author: DiamondExpert
I think end users shouldn''t get their hopes up. The buzz in the trade is that the lawers and large siteholders will get the lion''s share, followed by wholesalers, retailers and then the buying public.

Sightholders are excluded from the settlement classes [direct purchasers, specifically] for any purchases they made during the period [9/20/97 - 3/31/06] while they were sightholders so they should not collect.

The direct purchaser class [who purchased directly from DeBeers or competitors] has $22.5million + interest - taxes owed on the interest allocated to them. That''s everybody buying from the mining companies but the sightholders.

But, yes, the lawyers wil get their 33% - 40% off the top before the consumers and resellers see anything.

Indirect purchasers/resellers [who bought from anybody else for resale] have $137,067,500 + interest - taxes, expenses, fees, and incentive awards [whatever that means] to be allocated.

Consumers have $135,432,500 + interest - taxes, expenses, fees, and incentive awards to be allocated.

$295,000,000 is not a big number when you consider the size of the industry in the US. The retail component alone is in the 10''s of billions of dollars - and the settlement fund for consumers is only $135,432,500 less various costs! That won''t go a long way if any significant percentage of consumers file a claim.

I have a few big ticket purchases during the period so I plan to file. We''ll see what happens!

 

[DiamanteBlu]

Date: 1/12/2008 11:55:07 PM
Author: Rank Amateur
If I''m reading it correctly, the Consumer portion is earmarked at $135M minus 25% lawyers'' windfall. This amounts to about $100M to the consumers. The thing I can''t begin to guess is how many qualifying claims they will have. Say they have over $1B in claims you might get 10% on of your qualifying purchases, which might be 40% of the purchase price. Even 4% on a $5000 diamond is $200. Not bad for filling out an online form.

I suspect the lawyers'' windfall will be larger than 25% plus there are other fees. Don''t forget to apply the recognized claim percentage which ranges from 6% to 59% of the retail price [appendix B]. A $5000 diamond''s max payout is $5000x59% [the recognized claim percentage] which is $3350. Then you apply the 4% to that for a whopping $134 assuming I did the arithmetic right!

 

[DiamanteBlu]

Date: 1/12/2008 11:59:53 PM
Author: Dee*Jay
OK, let me make sure I understand this. It doesn''t matter *where* I got the pieces from (assuming it was not DeBeers and it occured in the US), correct?

Yup.

So I could have purchased X number of items from any number of stores/jewelers (B&M or internet) during that period and I can put them on the form?

Yup.

I don''t see any request to submit receipts--or am I just missing it?

No receipts required to file a claim. They might ask you for them later, though [random sample maybe?]

And about the mixed gemstone items, for instance, I have a diamond and sapphire three stone ring--do I put the value of the whole ring on there? It seems so based on what I''m reading but I wonder if that''s correct...

Yup. They account for the mixed stones via a lower recognized claim percentage.