Netflix subscribers decry $27M class action settlement

Fierce Online reports on Ted Frank's objection to a Netflix and Wal-Mart settlement that would benefit the attorneys more than the class members and distribute payments to class members in an inappropriate manner.

"The settlement is so patently one that benefits the attorneys without really giving anything to the class members," Frank said, noting the agreenment calls for the payment of attorneys fees in excess of the Ninth Circuit's 25 percent benchmark.

"There are so many class members that if every class member had filed for a claim, they would have gotten less than a dollar each," Frank said. The settlement "benefits class counsel at the expense of its clients," he said.

Frank said parties in the case–including class counsel and attorneys for Wal-Mart–argued before the district court that CAFA did not apply to the litigation because settlement funds would be dispursed via gift-card credit, not in the form of coupons.

"They were calling coupons 'gift cards' even though they're economically indistinguishable from a coupon," Frank said. "The vast majority of courts don't fall for that; but, for whatever reason, this one did."

Read the full article at Fierce Online.