Defendants have paid approximately $310 million into the Settlement Fund. After deducting payments to governmental entities, attorneys’ fees, costs, awards to class representatives, and other court-approved payments, it is anticipated that approximately $200 million will be available for pro rata distribution to claimants that submit valid claims. The number and type of DRAM modules or electronic products containing DRAM that you bought will determine how much money you can receive. The Claims Administrator will allocate the Settlement Fund to pay claims based on the value of your purchases as a percentage of the total value of all claimants’ purchases. It is anticipated that each claimant will receive a minimum of $10.
To compute the value of your claim, the products you purchased will be valued based on Computer Equivalent Units (“CEUs”). One CEU represents the average of the amount of DRAM commonly installed in a computer for each year of the Class Period. Thus, graphic cards, which contain on average one third the DRAM of a computer, are valued as 0.33 CEU. The following table shows the amount of CEUs for the types of DRAM containing products that were commonly purchased during the Class Period.
Table A: Computer Equivalent Units of Qualifying Products
| Category | Computer Equivalent Units |
|---|---|
| Computers – Laptops or Desktops | 1.00 |
| Printers | 0.05 |
| Memory Modules | 0.67 |
| Graphics Cards | 0.33 |
| Video Game Consoles | 0.10 |
| DVD Players | 0.05 |
| Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) | 0.10 |
| MP3 Players | 0.10 |
| TiVo/Digital Video Recorders | 0.33 |
| Servers | One CEU per $2,300 spent1 |
| Point of Sale Systems | 1.00 |
1Because the amount of DRAM in servers varies significantly according to the cost of the server, claims for servers must be reported in dollars spent during the class period.
Valuing claims for purchases of DRAM containing products based on CEUs allows you to report the products you purchased without reporting the amount of DRAM in each product. Using a single average CEU for computers and most other products purchased during the Class Period is an appropriate benchmark because the decline in the price per megabyte (“MB”) of DRAM during the Class Period was offset by an increase in the average amount of DRAM commonly sold in a computer. This allows you to report the products you purchased without reporting the year in which you purchased each product.
You only need to report the MBs of DRAM in the products purchased by year if you are claiming DRAM products not listed in Table A or for purchases of more than 10,000 memory modules. These purchases must be reported in MBs per year. Claims for purchases reported in MBs per year will be converted to CEUs as provided in Table B.
Table B: MBs of DRAM per CEU (1998-2002)
| Year | MBs of DRAM |
|---|---|
| 1998 | 59 |
| 1999 | 68 |
| 2000 | 73 |
| 2001 | 153 |
| 2002 | 321 |
There will be an initial computation to identify individuals and businesses whose claims are so small that their payment from the Settlement Fund would be less than $10 (“Small Claimants”). Each of these Small Claimants will be raised to a payment of $10. There is a possibility that Small Claimants will receive more than $10 each. If there are fewer than 2.5 million Small Claimants, each Small Claimant’s check will be increased pro rata above $10 until either the entire $25 million has been allocated to Small Claimants, or each Small Claimant’s payment equals their estimated single damages from the alleged overcharge. If this damages limit is reached before exhausting the $25 million, any remaining funds will be distributed to non-profit organizations approved by the Court to support public or not-for-profit activities on a geographically diverse basis to address the injury alleged in the lawsuits. There is also a highly unlikely possibility that Small Claimants will not receive an individual payment. This is because there is a cap of $50 million on the portion of the Settlement Fund that can be used to compensate Small Claimants. Therefore, if there are more than 5 million Small Claimants, which is not anticipated, no cash distribution will be made to them. Instead, $40 million will be distributed for their general benefit to non-profit organizations approved by the Court, as described above.
After all claims have been assigned a CEU value, and after the claims of Small Claimants are adjusted and compensated as described above, all available funds remaining in the Settlement Fund will be distributed pro rata to all other claimants. No money will go back to the Defendants.