Wal-Mart Ready to Settle Netflix Case for $27.5M

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Yay! We can all finally line up to get our $1 settlement! Wal-Mart admits to no wrongdoing and the lawyers will get $8.5 million but I think this is a win for everyone. :rolleyes:

The lawyers representing Netflix subscribers are asking for 25 percent, or nearly $6.9 million, of the total settlement, plus as much as $1.7 million to cover their costs. That means less than $19 million could be left to pay the people covered by that settlement. Assuming everyone eligible participates, it would amount to less than $1 per person.
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Wait, so they want $6.9m in profit .. and then another $1.7m to cover their expenses? I'm pretty sure the $6.9m will cover it just fine.

Gotta love the legal system.
 
These lawsuits serve only to pay lawyers, really. No one else really gets anything out of it.
 
The lawyers representing Netflix subscribers are asking for 25 percent, or nearly $6.9 million, of the total settlement, plus as much as $1.7 million to cover their costs.
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Ummm were these lawyers like on TV where "if you don't get paid they don't get paid" ?? Because fuck them and their 25% bullshit, The 1.7M to cover their costs should be the extent of what they get.

That said, even if the lawyers got nothing, everyone as part of the settlement still gets next to nothing.
 
I could see if the studios conspiring with Walmart and Netflix to raise prices on renting and buying DVDs, but just Walmart and Netflix alone?

So, did Walmart increase prices on DVDs to drive more people to Netflix, and get a cut of the increased revenue, just for Netflix to raise subscription prices, driving people to Walmart to buy the higher priced DVDs?

Are people (and some lawyers and judges) that stupid?
 
JMccovery said:
I could see if the studios conspiring with Walmart and Netflix to raise prices on renting and buying DVDs, but just Walmart and Netflix alone?

So, did Walmart increase prices on DVDs to drive more people to Netflix, and get a cut of the increased revenue, just for Netflix to raise subscription prices, driving people to Walmart to buy the higher priced DVDs?

Are people (and some lawyers and judges) that stupid?
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That's pretty f-d up.
 
Actually crap like this ends up costing the consumers money. Corporations can easily bump prices up in order to make up for the lower bottom line margins that result from having to pay out settlements.

In other news today Wal-Mart raises the price of bananas 1 cent per pound... 10 minutes later the settlement is "paid for".
 
As long as they don't raise their Ammo prices, I don't care :)
 
This is why I use nothing but good ole' redbox. As long as you dont get mugged at one of them your good to go.
 
shawnoen said:
Depends how many sign up for class action. That determines payout amount. It could be $0.01....
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Not really, there are approx 18M to be paid out. Netflix only had 21M customers at its high mark and during the up to 2005 period there were probably fewer customers. It will certainly be less than $10, and probably less than $5 depending on how many sign up. It will for sure be more than $1 though.
 
Awesome..I get a free pack of gum. To all the haters, that is a pack of gum I didn't have before! :D
 
I think we need a law to limit the percentage lawyers can make steal for themselves from class actions. 25% is ridiculous especially when the aggrieved members of the class action are seeing less then $1. How about the most the lawyers can take for themselves be equal to or less then 1000 times the payout to the class action members? That would prevent frivolous lawsuits like this from happening.
 
JUSTJOEL73 said:
I think we need a law to limit the percentage lawyers can make steal for themselves from class actions. 25% is ridiculous especially when the aggrieved members of the class action are seeing less then $1. How about the most the lawyers can take for themselves be equal to or less then 1000 times the payout to the class action members? That would prevent frivolous lawsuits like this from happening.
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This. Class action is a big racket designed to pay the lawyers big bucks and nothing else.
 
Screwed up as it is I want my dollar. I will promptly slip that puppy into the nearest redbox.
 
JUSTJOEL73 said:
I think we need a law to limit the percentage lawyers can make steal for themselves from class actions. 25% is ridiculous especially when the aggrieved members of the class action are seeing less then $1. How about the most the lawyers can take for themselves be equal to or less then 1000 times the payout to the class action members? That would prevent frivolous lawsuits like this from happening.
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Yeah I think a percentage of ZERO is good, doubly so considering they're taking nearly 2 million for expenses. I mean WTF, if I ever do a job for someone, I get paid for it, then if they manage to make money off that then I get a percentage right? That's how it works?
 
So, if Walmart and Netflix are responsible for over inflating the costs for consumers to purchase or rent movies does this mean that they're responsible for piracy too? I mean, the pirates are always blaming what they do on the costs of the items they pirate so if that is the case they can say they were driven to do it by these guys.

Maybe we need to have the MPAA take a look into it. ;)
 
Got my email from netflix yesterday, apparently Im in this somehow. Woot! Ill take my 25 cents please!;)
 
JUSTJOEL73 said:
I think we need a law to limit the percentage lawyers can make steal for themselves from class actions. 25% is ridiculous especially when the aggrieved members of the class action are seeing less then $1. How about the most the lawyers can take for themselves be equal to or less then 1000 times the payout to the class action members? That would prevent frivolous lawsuits like this from happening.
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It would also prevent lawyers from taking up legitimate class action suits.


I just received an email regarding the settlement. If you qualify and want something from the suit, you can either send in a letter and get a couple of bucks or register online to get a Walmart.com gift card for a couple of dollars that likely won't be enough to purchase anything from their site. This is definitely a win for them, as the few customers who even bother to use the gift card will invariably end up spending more than the $5 or so the giftcard will be worth.
 
Netflix just cannot seem to keep on the public's good side. No wonder why when my employer, DISH Network, released the Blockbuster Movie Pass people flocked away from Netflix. If I had not already switched from Netflix to the BMP because I get a lot more entertainment choices, I would be doing so right now. I want no part of a company that has it in for their subscribers in such a scandalous way.
 
bat-tech2 said:
Netflix just cannot seem to keep on the public's good side. No wonder why when my employer, DISH Network, released the Blockbuster Movie Pass people flocked away from Netflix. If I had not already switched from Netflix to the BMP because I get a lot more entertainment choices, I would be doing so right now. I want no part of a company that has it in for their subscribers in such a scandalous way.
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then why are you working for dish network?
 
Since this article sucked and nobody ever said what this is really about I went and looked it up, some reason I didn't get the email from Netflix so not sure if it explained it or not. Walmart was starting up their own DVD by mail service to go up against Netflix. They later made a deal with Netflix if they pointed their customers to Walmart to buy movies then they would shut down their service. Netflix accepted that deal and link to Walmart's site to point people toward buying a movie.

All I can guess is that they are trying to call that price fixing as if there was the extra service choice out there then prices would have been cheaper for the services. However I don't think that is true as blockbuster has been there and not effected prices, that is being driven by the movie studios not how many other similar services there is. Problem is just the how this all went down, had Netflix just made a deal with them to link to (as they need to link to somebody) this wouldn't have been an issue, but since Walmart got rid of a failing service for it to happen it ends up looking bad.
 
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