De Beers Diamond Lawsuit

De Beers diamond lawsuit: De Beers, the South African Diamond company, has settled a lawsuit about price-fixing to the tune of $295 million.

If you bought a piece of diamond jewelry between January 1, 1994 and March 31, 2006 than you may be eligible for a refund on part of your purchase price as a part of this lawsuit.

De Beers is accused of cornering the market for diamonds and keeping prices higher than they should have been between these points in time. Even though other diamond makers were operating during this period of time, DeBeers had such control over the diamond market that they were able to artificially increase the prices of diamonds by influencing how much diamond material could hit the market at any one time.

De Beers is not admitting to any wrongdoing, but they are shelling out a whopping $295 million, $135 million of which is being made available for consumers only and not wholesalers, to put this trouble behind them.

"While we don't accept the allegations, we do believe that settling this suit is in the best interests of our clients, our shareholders and consumers," a statement on the De Beers website read.

The amount of money you will get in a refund is substantial and it will be based on a percentage of what you bought. It will also be determined by how expensive the item you bought was.

To see if you qualify for this refund go to diamondclassaction.com. There you will be able to find out how much you might qualify for and how to submit a claim for a refund.

This case brings to mind some of the other recent price-fixing cases.

The CD music clubs were sued for price-fixing a few years ago and they also settled out of court. Sony BMG agreed to give customers free CDs in an attempt to get out of their legal bind.

In 1995, Samsung Electronics and its US subsidiary Samsung Semiconductor pleaded guilty to price-fixing. Samsung agreed to pay a $300 million penalty for its participation in an international DRAM price-fixing conspiracy. The fine was the second largestcriminal antitrust fine in US history at the time and the largest criminal penalty since 1999.

There are also investigations of price-fixing into several big name gas companies and small gas station owners over the gas prices that took effect after Hurricane Katrina. They are accused of pushing the price of gas higher than it should have been over the fear that some of the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico could not get enough oil to market.