SEATTLE – Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP today filed papers with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California petitioning for appointment of the firm as interim class counsel for indirect purchasers in a class-action lawsuit alleging that several of the largest producers of lithium-ion batteries, including LG (KSE: 066570.KS), Panasonic (NYSE: PC), Sanyo (TW: 1614.TW), Sony (NYSE: SNE), Samsung (KSE: 005930), and Hitachi (OTC: HTHIY), participated in a scheme to fix battery prices.

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants used their collective power to fix and artificially increase the prices of lithium-ion batteries, which are commonly used in many consumer electronic products. The complaint says that, as a result of this activity, consumers overpaid for devices such as cell phones, digital cameras and notebook computers.

Consumers who have purchased a device containing a lithium-ion battery are encouraged to contact Hagens Berman by calling 206-623-7292 or by emailing [email protected].

Hagens Berman managing partner Steve Berman noted the importance of the case for consumers.

“Over the last several years, lithium-ion batteries have revolutionized a number of portable computing devices such as Apple’s iPad,” he said. “We believe that the major players in the lithium-ion battery industry fixed prices, and device manufacturers like Apple passed that cost along to consumers resulting in a direct increase in prices for a number of portable computing devices.”

Hagens Berman today filed an application with the court to represent a possible class of consumers who purchased devices containing lithium-ion batteries. The firm has led a number of similar price-fixing cases in the past, including litigation against optical disc drive (ODD) makers and LCD screens, also components in many of the same portable computing devices that contain the batteries.

More information about this case is available at http://hbsslaw.com/cases/batteries-antitrust.

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About Hagens Berman
Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP is a consumer-rights class-action law firm with offices in nine cities. The firm has been named to the National Law Journal’s Plaintiffs’ Hot List seven times. More about the law firm and its successes can be found at www.hbsslaw.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.

Contact
Ashley Klann
[email protected]
206-268-9363