De Beers Diamond Lawsuit Could Entitle You to Substantial Refunds

You Could Be Entitled to Some Cash If You Bought a Diamond Over the Last Decade.

Sylvia Cochran
The De Beers diamond company is settling a $295 million class action lawsuit over price fixing through manipulation and monopolization. The judgment entered as a result of the settlement may provide refunds of up to 30% to De Beers' customers who purchased a diamond for personal use - covering resellers separately - between 01-01-1994 and 03-31-2006. To claim your refund, it is vital that you make your claim known by 05-19-2008.

De Beers has been in the diamond business since 1888 when it was founded to permit for a variety of mining efforts in Africa and later on in other countries as well. Over the years the company was subjected to much criticism, but price fixing had not be associated with the company until 2004, when a $10 million fine was levied against De Beers for price fixing and conspiring with General Electric Company to manipulate the pricing of industrial diamonds.

Of course, price fixing is not new in the world of big business and one does not have to look to exotic products such as diamonds to notice cases of price fixing. The English paper The Guardian reported in April of 2007 about a case of price fixing involving Heineken. The brewer stood accused and was fined for manipulating the price of beer in Holland. Asserting collusion, another brewery charged was Grolsch while InBev turned stoolpigeon and even though named in the case escaped any fines being levied. Heineken was named in 2004 for a similar offence in France.

In 2001, the CBC reported on a price fixing scandal that was considered one of the most far reaching in the industry and Canada's history. Vitamins were at issue then and consumers who for more than a decade had paid good money for products utilizing vitamin enriched ingredients found that they had been overcharged. Since most anyone is a consumer of bread, milk, cereal, and pasta - as well as a host of other products that are commonly fortified with vitamins - this naturally caused an outcry against perpetrators Hoffman LaRoche of Switzerland, Rhone Poulenc of France, BASF of Germany, and Eisai Company Limited and Daiichi Pharmaceutical of Japan.

Prior to that, in November of 1997, the then Attorney General of Connecticut announced that he would sue Toys 'R' Us as well as Hasbro, Tyco Industries and Little Tikes Company, all of whom were charged with entering into an illegal agreement that prevented warehouse clubs from having the same purchasing power as Toys 'R' Us and therefore giving the latter an unfair advantage and price control.

Of course, as long as the overall market relies on the cooperation of retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, and raw material providers, the odds of future price fixing scandals breaking are indeed high!

Published by Sylvia Cochran - Featured Contributor in Automotive, Politics, Travel and Lifestyle

Sylvia Cochran works out of sunny Southern California and has been freelance writing -- full-time -- since 2005. SEO-optimized Internet copy includes news analysis, political Op/Ed and parenting as well as a...   View profile

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  • DALLAS 9/9/2010

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  • PART III of ... 8/17/2009

    Rather than contacting De Beers and the claims administrator, perhaps we should try to contact Shawn Sullivan, the individual whose name precedes "et al" and who apparently was one of many who filed the claim against DB Investments, Inc., et al. I'm going to try, at least, and if I come up with anything, I will let all of you know.

  • PART II of Filed Claim Online Jan. 18, 2008 8/17/2009

    I didn't realize that my numbef of words was limited so I'll paste the rest of my comment below:
    After all, scams are as widespread as mortgage foreclosures. It doesn't matter how esteemed or prominent a corporate executive, financier, philanthropist, socialite or aristocrat seems nor how financially sound and readily available a corporation's prospectus, annual report and financial statements if the corporation's reputation is mediocre, its treatment of customers and employees callous and irresponsible, its operating history sketchy, and, writes Arianna S. Huffington in the provocatively titled and very funny book, "Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America", its leadership of "corporate pigs" continues to gorge itself "on grossly inflated pay packages and heaping helpings of stock options", when the "good guys" and the "bad guys" are one and the same.

    Rather than contacting De Beers and the claims administrator, perhaps we should tr

  • Filed Claim Online Jan. 18, 2008 and Have Heard No 8/17/2009

    Like many others who commented here, I filed my claim online at the website https://diamondsclassaction.com/ because it seemed that DeBeers preferred the online method. But I've heard nothing. If I recall correctly, I also e-mailed the claims administrator or perhaps someone through the www.diamondsclassaction.com website because since filing the claim online, I moved and wanted to update my address.

    My mother, who prefers not to do anything relating to law or finances online, not only completed the claim form but made copies of all of her receipts, including those for pieces that did not cost more than $10,000, and sent all this information to the address for the Diamond Settlement Administrator in Faribault, MN. She has heard nothing either, and unlike me, she hasn't moved. In fact, she has lived in the same home for 32 years.

    Because everyone I have spoken to who correctly filed a claim has heard nothing from the claim administrator, I wonder if this is a scam. After all, sca

  • helen king/loizou 4/12/2009

    i am looking for sylvia de beers >????

  • Rick R 2/7/2009

    There are still legal appeals to the original ruling last spring being filed and heard by the courts. Basically the attorneys making sure they collect all the legal fees they can. Of course all this is coming out of our piece of the pie. I read where there are about 450,000 consumers that applied for the DeBeers class action (about $604 per claimaint).
    http://sparklesmart.blogspot.com/2009/02/long-wait-for-cash-from-de-beers.html

  • Tom P 2/6/2009

    I filed on line one year ago, yet I have tried a couple of times to track progress of my claim as well as the suit in general with no success. Has anyone come up with a way to track progress?

  • ART 1/25/2009

    WHAT'S THE DEAL I HAVEN'T HEARD ANYTHING BACK YET. ITS BEEN ABOUT 9 MONTHS SINCE I DID MY CLAIM DOES ANYONE KNOW ANYTHING?

  • tag 12/8/2008

    If you have additional questions about the Settlement, you can contact the Diamonds Claims Administrator by calling toll free 1-800-760-5431 (hearing impaired call 1-866-494-8369), or writing to: Diamonds Claims Administrator, P.O. Box 9432, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55440-9432.
    www.diamondsclassaction.com

  • Nancy 12/6/2008

    me too no refund...

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