VERIFY often receives questions from readers who have received messages about settlements and want to know whether they are scams.
Multiple VERIFY readers, including Laurie and Kara, reached out to ask if emails they received about claiming a $100 payment from an auto parts settlement are real.
“Pursuant to the Court-approved Round 4 Plan of Allocation and Round 5 Plan of Allocation in the matter entitled In Re: Automotive Parts Antitrust Litigation, Lead Case No. 12-md-02311, you are eligible to receive a payment of $100.00,” the email reads.
THE QUESTION
Is there an auto parts settlement?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
Yes, there is an auto parts settlement.
WHAT WE FOUND
Emails are being sent to eligible customers to claim $100 as part of an auto parts settlement. Multiple auto parts manufacturers were sued through several class action lawsuits as a result of claims the companies worked together to raise prices of vehicle component parts. The manufacturers denied any wrongdoing but agreed to the settlement.
The deadline to file a claim has passed, however, those who “bought or leased a qualifying new vehicle in the U.S. (not for resale), or paid to replace one or more of the qualifying vehicle parts” between 2002 and 2018 were eligible, the official settlement website says.
“The multidistrict litigation has lasted for more than 12 years and stems from the largest criminal antitrust investigation in U.S. history,” encompassing “more than 40 separate actions against more than 160 defendants, each involving different auto parts, alleged anticompetitive agreements, alleged conspirators, and timelines,” Robins Kaplan, LLP, one of the co-lead counsel in the settlement said.
Payments that are currently being sent out are part of the fourth and fifth rounds of the settlement. The settlements resolve various class actions lawsuits that claim the Defendants “agreed to unlawfully raise the price of a certain kind of vehicle component part,” the official settlement website says.
Round four settlements were approved by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan Southern Division in September 2020. Round five settlements were approved in February 2023.
A full list of eligible vehicles for each settlement can be found on the settlementwebsite.