Appeals Filed in De Beers Class Action

The De Beers class action settlement, and accompanying payouts to consumers and the trade, may take a little longer to work its way through the courts. Or it may not.

The De Beers class action site recently noted that "appeals have been filed" by consumers (not De Beers) that will delay the settlement. However, Jared Stamell, one of the lawyers involved, told me these appeals are "a matter of course, in  every large class action" and that he wasn’t sure the settlement would be delayed.

"They will only hold something up, if the appeals are not resolved at the time the administration is complete and it’s time to distribute the money," he said. "At this point, they are not delaying anything.  The administration of the claim is going forward. It depends on when we are finished with the appeal. We don’t know yet what the timing is going to be."

What makes this interesting is not just the money involved, but the fact that De Beers seems to view the settlement of this case as the resolution of its 60 year old anti-trust dispute with the U.S. government.