After Comcast was caught throttling P2P traffic back in 2007, a class action lawsuit (Hart vs. Comcast) was filed against them. According to Benzinga, the lawsuit has now come to an end, as Comcast settles it for $16 million. According to Scott+Scott LLP, one of the the law firms in charge of the suit, United States users who were affected by the throttling may be eligible for a refund or credit assuming they fall into one of the following categories:
- Used or attempted to use Comcast service to use the Ares, BitTorrent, eDonkey, FastTrack or Gnutella P2P protocols any time from April 1, 2006 to December 31, 2008 and were unable to share files or have reason to believe that the speed at which files were shared was impaired; and/or
- Attempted but were unable to use Comcast service to use Lotus Notes to send emails any time from March 26, 2007 to October 3, 2007.
Lexington Law Group partner, Mark Todzo calls the settlement "a great result for Comcast customers." He says that
"Whoever says the legal system in this country is broken, well, you're right. Comcast was caught tampering with its customers' packets two years ago. It bitched and moaned like nobody's business, earning itself no friends. The Federal Communications Commission sanctioned the gigantic corporation in what amounted to a slap on the wrist. Big deal. A class action lawsuit was filed, which was just settled for $16 million. Comcast raked in $34.3 billion in revenue in 2008, meaning that this settlement amounts to four hours of revenue. That's right: four hours. Take that, corporate America!"
Whatever the case may be, you might be entitled to some compensation. To make a claim, call 1-877-567-2754, or visit www.P2PCongestionSettlement.com for more information.
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