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De Beers Posted: Mon, 02 Jun 2008 [miningmx.com] -- A US federal court judge has given final approval to diamond giant De Beers' $297m – about R2.38bn – diamond pricing settlement. This final approval comes five months after De Beers, which is 45% owned by global resources group Anglo American, agreed to the settlement. Brought about by individuals and businesses that purchased loose diamonds and jewellery or other product containing gem diamonds in the US, the class action lawsuit charged that De Beers and its subsidiaries violated antitrust, unfair competition and consumer-protection laws by monopolizing diamond supplies and conspired to control the diamond prices by fixing and increasing prices at their discretion. De Beers, the world's largest supplier of rough diamonds, was also charged with false advertising. The Fairness Hearing in the settlement of the US Diamond Class Actions court cases took place in the United States Federal District Court in New Jersey in April and the deadline for claims to be filed closed two weeks ago. Under the settlement, De Beers would pay $272.5m to indirect purchaser class members and $22.5m to the direct purchaser class members where those that fall in the direct purchaser class purchased from De Beers or De Beers' Diamond Mining competitors while the indirect purchaser class includes consumers and resellers. However, to claim the purchases had to be made between 1994 and 2006 to be eligible for the rebate.
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