Yeah, I wouldn’t have guessed it’d be a thing myself.
If you ever owned a CRT television,it’s entirely possible that you can become part of a massive class suit that will give you a cash settlement. There are a few prerequisites, but chances are good that you qualify anyway.
See, way back in the stone age year of 1995 (feel old yet?), Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, as alleged by the suit, conspired with several other manufacturers to fix the prices of CRT televisions. This ultimately forced consumers to pay more for any CRT TV’s and monitors they bought at retail. The other manufacturers name checked by the suit include Chunghwa, LG, Philips, Panasonic, Hitachi, Toshiba, Samsung SDI, Thomson, and Technologies Displays America.
So, as detailed on the CRTClaims page, you can apply for a part of this $33 million settlement. You just need to meet the following requirements:
- You need to have “indirectly” bought (In other words, from a retailer rather than directly from the manufacturer) a CRT product between the dates of March 1, 1995 and Nov. 25, 2007, in one of the following states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Hawaii, Nebraska and Nevada are also included, though they have a shorter range of dates than the others, as detailed in question 7 of the FAQ: Between June 25, 2002 and November 25, 2007 for Hawaii, between July 20, 2002 and November 25, 2007 for Nebraska, and between February 4, 1999 and November 25, 2007 for Nevada.
- For the states of Missouri, Montana and Rhode Island, the CRT product must have been for personal, family or household use. It can not have been intended for office or business use.
- The television or monitor must have been fro personal use and not for resale.
As for how much you’ll get? That’s determined by the number and size of the CRT products you bought, as well as the number of people that apply for a settlement. The settlement estimates that everyone will get about $10 per television/monitor.
To get your piece of the cathode ray tube pie, you’ll need to fill out this form, and submit your claim before June 13th of this year. It’s worth noting that if you submitted a claim in any of the prior nine settlements, it will be automatically submitted for this one.
Source: Lifehacker
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