Millions of current and former Netflix customers woke up Wednesday to an e-mail about a class-action lawsuit involving the price of online DVD rentals.
It’s legit, and it’s the latest twist in a legal saga that started two years ago.
In May 2005, Wal-Mart and Netflix struck a pact: Wal-Mart would scrap its struggling DVDs-by-mail subscription service and instead encourage its customers to sign on with Netflix. In return, Netflix agreed to promote Wal-Mart’s DVD sales business.
But in 2009, a group of Netflix subscribers banded together and filed a lawsuit charging the two companies with collusion. The gist of their complaint is that the two companies agreed to carve up the market and stay off each others’ turf: DVD rentals for Netflix and DVD sales for Wal-Mart. The deal helped Netflix entrench itself as the market’s dominant player and raise its subscription prices, the lawsuit alleges.
Last year, a California judge certified the lawsuit as a class action, bringing Netflix’s entire subscriber base into the lawsuit. He has not yet ruled on the merits of the case.
Via: CNNMoney.com
To Read More: Click Here
