"Domestic Airlines Antitrust Litigation Settlements" ? ? ?

G-Man

G-Man

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Anyone know anything about this?

https://domesticairclass.com/Home/portalid/0

Quoting from the website: "A class action lawsuit has been filed against the four largest commercial air passenger carriers in the United States—American Airlines, Inc., Delta Air Lines, Inc., Southwest Airlines Co., and United Airlines, Inc. (collectively, “Defendants”), claiming that Defendants, along with US Airways and Continental Airlines, conspired to increase fares by limiting capacity on domestic flights.

Southwest has agreed to pay $15 million and American has agreed to pay $45 million to settle this nationwide litigation. Southwest and American have also agreed, as part of the Settlements, to provide certain cooperation to Plaintiffs in this litigation. Southwest and American deny that they did anything wrong and have asserted defenses to Plaintiffs’ claims. They have settled to avoid the considerable cost, burden, and distraction of this litigation.

The Settlements are on behalf of persons and entities who purchased air passenger transportation services for flights within the United States and its territories and the District of Columbia from American, Delta, Southwest, United, Continental, or US Airways at any time between July 1, 2011 and December 20, 2017 for the Southwest Settlement and between July 1, 2011 and June 14, 2018 for the American Settlement.

The lawsuits are continuing against Delta and United."

$60 million pledged? Lawyers requesting 30% plus expenses? $42 million remaining? Not sure this is likely to even produce a buck a claimant. POA opinions?
 
I’ve gotten the email. Looks like it’s just trying to get participants.
 
I’m in. **** the airlines!
 
Average domestic passengers per year has been around 700,000,000+ per the US DOT.

You do the math.

Cheers
 
The notice came to my mother's email address. She has been deceased since 2014 and I'm sure she didn't buy a ticket after 2011...
 
I also got it, and ignored it.

With the airlines being favorite fodder for the news reporting outlets, we should have heard something about what caused the suit from those agencies. But I don't recall seeing/hearing anything from that vector.
 
Half Fast said:
I think they’re using the voter registration database.....
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Not the one around here. She died in September and did not get a mail-in ballot in November, even though she was a permanent mail-in voter.

I know this was a joke, but...
 
I feel left out... I didn't get an email. I could use an extra 2 bucks right now.
 
RJM62 said:
It's like any other class-action suit. The lawyers get millions, and the class members get mouse pads.

Rich
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Isn't the main point to make the airlines to stop illegal practices?
The lawyers spend their time in class action collecting data, filing motions, etc. working all the time on building and proving the case. The plaintiffs add their name to a list, and have minimal relative work involved.

The airlines all have lawyers on payroll, so I'm not automaticaly buying the "we'll settle but just to avoid costs, and "distractions" point the two that claim they are not guilty.
 
You never know...

I've received my share of them but only responded to a class action solicitation once. It was one of those where an auto manufacturer pretended there wasn't a problem and you spend money to fix it. I figured what the heck, filled out the forms, and got 100% if what I paid back.

Not likely to join this one. Don't want to ruin my streak.
 
LongRoadBob said:
Isn't the main point to make the airlines to stop illegal practices?
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Sometimes. It depends on the suit. Many times the alleged actionable conduct has already ceased by the time the suit is filed.

Most class-action suits of which I've been a member (by default, not because I chose to be) alleged some economic loss to, and sought compensation for, the class members. In my case, most of the losses had to do with computer-related equipment that I purchased when I owned a computer tech support business. Various manufacturing defects would cause devices to fail or malfunction in some way or another, and the suits would seek compensation for people or businesses who'd bought those devices.

I wound up a member of many of these classes. Most of the time I had no idea how the lawyers knew who I was. I have to suspect that they harvested the credit card or vendor records somehow. In only a very few cases had I registered the devices myself because usually they were purchased for resale. If anyone registered them at all, it would have been my customers.

In almost all cases, the classes were limited to those who bought specified devices that had been manufactured between certain dates, had serial numbers falling within a certain sequence, or were otherwise historical, not current devices. The manufacturers had since corrected the flaws or discontinued the devices, which, paradoxically, bolstered the cases for compensation for those who had purchased the defective devices. So the cases sought compensatory damages for historical defects, not declaratory or injunctive relief. The flaws had already been acknowledged and addressed by the defendants, either tacitly or explicitly.

Smart defendants or potential defendants could avoid lawsuits by explicitly acknowledging the flaws and voluntarily recalling or extending the warranties on the devices. KIA did that for gas tanks on first-generation Sportages, which were found to rust prematurely in areas where road salt was used. They just extended all the warranties on the gas tanks to ten years, regardless of how many times the cars had changed hands.

Manufacturers who tacitly acknowledge flaws and quietly fix them, on the other hand, are ripe for litigation if lawyers can prove that consumers had a reasonable expectation that the devices would function properly for a certain period of time irrespective of the warranties, or if incidental or consequential damages could also be proven (for example, the costs of hiring someone to replace a computer part, data loss resulting from its failure, and so forth).

The problem is that not once, in my experience, has the compensation to plaintiffs even come close to the actual damages from devices that failed or malfunctioned. Typically the settlements have been for pennies on the dollar. Sometimes they have been downright insulting. I literally received a mouse pad as compensation in one suit. I forget which one it was offhand. I do remember that the lawyers, on the other hand, received tens of millions of dollars.

The best settlements I ever received were agreements to replace the devices out-of-warranty if they failed, with no exception for devices that had been resold. I think they were the fairest settlements. They still didn't compensate for the incidental and consequential damages that would be associated with failure, but they were at least better than mouse pads.

LongRoadBob said:
The lawyers spend their time in class action collecting data, filing motions, etc. working all the time on building and proving the case. The plaintiffs add their name to a list, and have minimal relative work involved.
Click to expand...

But the class members are the ones who are alleged to have suffered damages in the first place (unless the suit primarily seeks declaratory and injunctive damages, which is more likely the case in a civil rights action than a typical tort case against a business).

LongRoadBob said:
The airlines all have lawyers on payroll, so I'm not automaticaly buying the "we'll settle but just to avoid costs, and "distractions" point the two that claim they are not guilty.
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That depends. I don't know what the law is in Norway, but in the States, we don't have automatic "loser pays;" and in many cases, the costs of defending a suit can in fact exceed the cost of settling it. And that's not even counting the negative public relations costs.

Smart companies try to make consumers whole quickly and completely. I broke a tooth once because a food item I bought had a bone in it. I called the company that made it, and they voluntarily paid my co-pay for the dentist and a generous something extra for my trouble and pain. I just had to send a note from the dentist, a copy of the bill, and a declaration of associated costs (travel and so forth); and sign a form waiving my right to sue and promising to keep quiet about it.

I took their first offer. I probably could have held out for more; but all I was seeking was actual and fair compensation, and they were forthcoming with same. They were actually very generous.

Rich
 
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