Visa and MC will pay $336 million

Visa and MasterCard have agreed to pay $336,000,000 to “settle a class-action lawsuit alleging the credit card firms shortchanged US consumers in foreign currency transactions.”

MasterCard International said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that its portion of the settlement was 72.48 million dollars and will be used to pay claims by eligible cardholders and other expenses.

The agreement must be approved by a federal court in New York, the filing said.

Microsoft to pay out $1.1 billion

Californians will soon to receive their delayed payments from a Microsoft antitrust class-action settlement, according to a recent CNN article:

Beginning in August, Californians who have filed claims will receive vouchers that can be redeemed for cash during the next four years, said Richard Grossman, whose law firm represented plaintiffs in the class-action case.

A California court had approved the settlement in July 2004, but a single class member had held up distribution of the money over his objection that the agreement called for unclaimed benefits to go to the state’s public schools.

But lawyers said the California payouts got back on track after the man objecting to the settlement lost his appeals and missed a deadline last week to further argue his case.

Most similar agreements in other jurisdictions also call for unclaimed benefits to go to public schools, and some states have already begun distributing the settlement money.

Most California consumer claims total less than $100, but many could exceed that amount depending on how much software was purchased, Grossman said. The claims for businesses typically range from tens of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars, he said.

Ohio workers’ comp bureau will pay $52 million

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation agreed “to drop its appeal and pay $52 million awarded to injured state employees in a class-action lawsuit“:

The bureau had argued that state laws prevented workers from being paid twice once by the state and once by insurance companies for the same injury. But the state Supreme Court said the laws were unconstitutional.

About 7,900 workers, who were forced to return their compensation from the state insurance fund, will get back 70 percent under the payment process approved by Judge Michael Donnelly of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday. The remaining 30 percent will be paid to attorneys and an administrator hired to distribute the money.

The bureau’s decision to pay is a victory for thousands of workers who “will see a return of their funds that had been unlawfully collected,” said lead attorney Craig Bashein.

William Mabe, the bureau’s new administrator, decided that appealing the ruling was not appropriate given the agency’s attempts to rebuild trust following an investment scandal that rocked the agency.

The scandal erupted last year over unorthodox investments in rare coins and other collectibles and included a $215 million hedge fund loss.

Enron class action vs. Barclays dismissed

Looks like Barclays is in the clear:

BERLIN Barclays P-L-C says a court in Houston has dismissed claims against it in a class-action lawsuit over its role in the Enron bankruptcy.

The British bank today reports it received a court order dismissing claims against Barclays in the so-called Newby litigation.

The suit alleges several banks helped Houston-based Enron misrepresent its earnings and revenue.

Barclays is one of several financial companies named in the class action brought by Enron shareholders.

Enron declared bankruptcy in 2001.

Barclays didn’t give the court’s reason for the dismissal of the case.

The order will end the Newby litigation for Barclays unless plaintiffs, including the University of California, successfully challenge it.

There are still other Enron-related lawsuits against Barclays, including the bankruptcy case.

Bacterial Outbreak in NY leads to class action

More than 3,000 people were sickened by a bacterial outbreak at a water-spray park last summer in New York. Now these people have the chance to join a class-action lawsuit against the state:

Class-action status has been granted to a lawsuit filed against the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Historical Preservation.

The suit allows anyone who suffered from cryptosporidiosis to join the lawsuit if the illness was a result of the outbreak at a water playground last summer at Seneca Lake State Park near Geneva in Ontario County.

The state Health Department shut down the spray park last August after it was determined that the park’s water-holding tanks, which were used to recycle water, were contaminated with cryptosporidium.

According to the Health Department, 3,297 cases of the illness were reported in 33 New York counties.

Crypto, as the parasite is commonly called, lives for long periods in water and can be passed on through human or animal feces.

$30.5 Million Settlement in Australia

Australia’s first-ever cartel class action has reached a $30.5 million settlement:

The “vitamins class action” was initiated in the Federal Court, in Melbourne, against three of the largest foreign producers of vitamin C.

The companies - Roche, BASF and Aventis - were accused of fixing prices for a range of vitamin products used for animal nutrition or health over 10 years in the 1990s.

“The applicants in the class action alleged that as a result of the cartel, individuals - many of them farmers and businesses - lost market share or paid inflated prices.”

The Australian class action was initiated after the discovery of a worldwide conspiracy to raise and fix the prices of vitamins. Companies received record penalties.

The matter will go before the court on August 31 when a Federal Court judge will decide whether to approve the settlement.

Best of Niner Niner July 06

Niner Niner, a collaborative weblog network, has over 25 great blogs and this “Best Of” highlights just a few of the posts that were written by some of the Niner authors, in topics that range from High Heels, Ajax, HIPAA Privacy Regulation to gadgets, books and health. 

     

In Ajax Blog, Sreejith introduces us to a few new things. First is Vox a new blogging service from Six Apart that uses WYSIWYG with a taste of web 2.0. After that we learn about Krun.ch and Wishlistr.

   

Blogging Naked: Scarification and lip plates are shown to be some of the newest and more popular form of “self-expression” in recent years.

Bookadoodle: Nancy Callahan posted more in her series “Getting Published” and this latest edition was part 5.

Boomer 2.0 had posts that pointed out that boomers can still have that second career and another that shows many are not even planning retirement anytime soon.

In Class Action Questions find out about lawsuits involving pyramid scams, hair raising beauty product claims and why State Farm was penalized.

Credit Cardenza: Unfortunately, millions of people are drowning in  credit card debt, have to worry about credit scams and fraud, and let’s not even talk about the international fees.

  

Dealsneak managed to sneak more than a few deals pass us this summer including, the Samsonite laptop case, a gorgeous leather bench, and a sweet looking Thermaltake Tsunami computer case.

Feed Money discusses the fact the Ebay has jumped on the contextual ad bandwagon as well as blog feeds and a program called RSS To Blog.

If you need to Fix Your Finances one of the first steps is learning how to save your money. After that you can check out Mvelopes to learn all about budgets.

At Games For Money you can find places to play free online gambling games and also learn some card counting tricks and tips.

  

The High Heels Blogs show us which killer heels are on sale including boots, sandals, slides and mules. Also take a look at some killer wedding heels for this summers nuptials.

 

A few notable gadgets that were blogged in the HyperGadget blog were the Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader, and the jumbled and messy looking organizer.

Over at the Medcare Forum, Kathleen Milazzo tells us more about that scary mad cow disease and our medical privacy laws.

Find out just how much house you can afford before you go running off to get that mortgage. And is the housing bubble really ready to blow? All this and more in Mortgage Updates.

At My Secret Side Biz learn how to make a profit, how to get your own powerwash, and simple business and Ebay tips.

On Healthy Living: Sarah White tells us all about a new study that could help with asthma reduction when it comes to do light exercise that involves stead breathing like yoga.

On Movies has a decade of super heroes list that includes recent and unreleased movies. Leafworks reviewed The Omen and we got to see the trailer for the new Ghost Rider movie.

Powersellers Blog: Ebay has done it. They finally reached 200 million members and they are also expanding into new ideas. Also people are fed up with Paypal while crooks are finding more ways to defraud your account.

Seo Updates: Yahoo one of the biggest email services was hit with a worm and Google expanded into real estate but won’t be making a browser, at least not anytime soon.

Get some free exercise tips from The Diet Logs. You will certainly need them if you plan to take a bite of this $100 burger.

Living the Single life? Well take a look at some great break up lines and if your looking to meet people Leafworks posted a great review of club La Rumba.

Thumb Gods: Nintendo is no, no to the name Wii for their new console a game system that is at the end of this long list containing The Evolution of Video Game Consoles.

Las Vegas Revealed that it was ill prepared for a massive disaster, but til then you can still get married and get comp’d in Vegas.

 

Wander the World, well the State of Colorado with Leafworks. He takes us to the Cherry Blossom Festival, Gothnic in Denver, Old Colorado City, Plaza del Arte Festival in Downtown Denver and Garden of the Gods.

Did Cingular Defraud Customers?

Cingular is accused of decieving customers when they bought out AT&T two years ago. Customers have complained that since that deal went through their service has gone downhill until they have been forced to switch plans and go with a Cingular plan which includes getting a new contract, phone and accessories and they say that this is all the master plan of Cingular to get rid of AT&T altogether using sneaky tricks.

Cingular has denied the claims and their is now a class action lawsuit as many Cingular and AT&T users are fed up and angry.

Medicaid Citizenship Class Action Lawsuit

A lawsuit will be filed on July 1, 2006 by individuals who are upset about the new requirements put forth by Medicaid. To recieve benefits you have to show proof that you are a citizen of the United States and they have to be in by July 1.