DirecTV Class Action Thrown Out

[Scott Greczkowski]

The Court of Appeal for this district yesterday ordered publication of its Sept. 28 opinion holding that a lawsuit charging DIRECTV with using false advertising to induce subscribers to purchase more expensive “high definition” services cannot proceed as a class action.

Ruling that members of the proposed nationwide class did not share a commonality of interests because their rights could vary from state to state and because many subscribers did not rely on the alleged falsehoods, Div. Eight upheld the trial court’s denial of class certification.
Philip K. Cohen sued DIRECTV in 2004 under California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act and Unfair Competition Law, alleging that the company switched its HDTV channels to a lower resolution, reducing the quality of television images transmitted to subscribers.

A subscriber since 1997, Cohen in 2003 upgraded to DIRECTV’s “HD Package,” which the company advertised as delivering higher quality images than its basic service. However, the package required payment of an additional monthly fee and the purchase of equipment costing, in some instances, more than $1,000.

Cohen claimed that DIRECTV “represented that channels in its HD Package are broadcasted in the…1920x1080i standard and at 19.4 Mbps, which they are not,” and that the company advertised the package without intending to provide broadcasts at those levels.

Read the rest at C.A. Publishes Ruling Rejecting DIRECTV Class Action

 

[david1314]

Always good to see the " perpetually aggrieved class " including their representation lose any and all suits.

 

[Joe Diamond]

Class actions are a convenience for the judicial system, a source of early retirement money for the lawyers on both sides but produce little in the way of compensation for the members of the aggrieved party.

If you can afford a TV you can't be aggrieved....new law!

If you drink or smoke or drive too fast you can't be a member of any class...new law!

Truly damaged participants get paid first and lawyers get no more than 1%. Other legal costs are borne by the loosing party...like in England; ...new law!

Hope Directv doesn't raise rates to give their legal staff a bonus. Maybe if the losers do not appeal and do say they are sorry things will be nice again.

Joe

 

[Happy Camper]

Class actions do not usually result in a lot of benefit to individual consumers, but they are often tremendous clubs to bludgeon companies who victimize consumers (like DirecTV) with false, misleading or deceptive acts or trade practicies. I notice that the Court did not make any ruling on the merits of the poor guy's lawsuit claims, but only dismissed the class certification.

The best way to combat deceptive practices by DirecTV is to switch to another provider. Verizon FIOS or Dish would probably be good choices for those aggrieved.

 

[cfb]

You're right, they're a deterrent to some degree when corporations step over the line or fail to do the right thing by their customers.

Just a damn shame the money doesnt go to the people that were victimized.

I manage this by voting with my wallet. If a company is forthright and reasonable, provides good products and services and does the right thing when there are problems, I'll continue giving them my money.

 

[riffjim4069]

Class actions do not usually result in a lot of benefit to individual consumers, but they are often tremendous clubs to bludgeon companies who victimize consumers (like DirecTV) with false, misleading or deceptive acts or trade practicies. I notice that the Court did not make any ruling on the merits of the poor guy's lawsuit claims, but only dismissed the class certification.

Agreed!

The best way to combat deceptive practices by DirecTV is to switch to another provider. Verizon FIOS or Dish would probably be good choices for those aggrieved.

That's why I am a FiOS TV subscriber and no longer with Dish Network customer.

 

[cfb]

Yep, dish network is no panacea. They've had more than their fair share of lawsuits over funny practices.

In fact, they're quite competitive for the worst customer experience I ever had.

 

[Happy Camper]

We've been trying our FIOS on one TV by way of one of their triple play discount packages (we already had FIOS internet and phone, added the TV and actually reduced our cost for all three compared with what we'd paid for two before). If we make the switch to all FIOS and dump DirecTV, it will save us about $108 per month, and we'll get HD channels in the supplemental extra charge package from DirecTV which I've never paid for because it peeved me so (MGM, HD Net movies, etc.). We do not like the Verizon HD cable box or software, and I'll probably have to get Mrs. Camper a TiVo with a cable card so she can work the software and menus, but it seems we get closer to the switch every day.

Also, North Texas has been plagued with endless rain over the past month, and I've gotten really tired of my D* picture pixillating out and my DVRs recording only partial shows because of loss of signal.

 

[cfb]

Unfortunately, no fios or uverse in my town. Whats weird is I live in one of the most expensive places to live in the country. You'd think one of these guys would offer up something. Not even any dsl service.

I looked at Comcasts offerings and the prices are good, but when you click on the channel lineups they report "We are currently working to provide channel lineup information for your area".

Really? You're the cable company and you're still working to figure out what the cable lineup is that you're going to sell me?

My experience has been that you get far better information and service before you buy than afterwards. Maybe directv isnt so bad after all. At least they know what channels I'm going to get. Even if the DVR doesnt know what they are...

 

[JosephB]

Doesn't sound like that guy has much of a case anyway, I've never seen a DirecTV ad say that they broadcast every HD channel in 1080i, and certainly never guarantee a bitrate

 

[riffjim4069]

Doesn't sound like that guy has much of a case anyway, I've never seen a DirecTV ad say that they broadcast every HD channel in 1080i, and certainly never guarantee a bitrate

They don't all need to be 1080i (720p is an acceptable standard), and the problems is that DBS is dropping horizonal lines of resultion and not vertical resolution. In my opinion, the term "HD" implies adherence to a standard that was defined by the ATSC. Of course, since DBS is not terrestrial broadcast television, it would appear they can skirt the "quality" issue since there appears to be no HD standard (that I know of) for what qualifies as HD in the satcaster community.

1920 x 1080p =HD (only on Blu-Ray, HD-DVD and limited VOD)
1920 x 1080i = HD
1440 x 1080i = HD lite (this is what D* and E* have been doing)
1280 x 1080i = HD liter (D* and E* have done this too)
1280 x 720p = HD

I posted this previously...

The FCC references and incorporates the ATSC Standard for DTV. The ATSC defines HDTV as 1920x1080p, 1920x1080i, and 1280x720p. According to page 12 of the Recommended Practice: Guide to the Use of the ATSC Digital Television Standard (see below references), "The ATSC Standard enables transmission of HDTV pictures at several frame rates and one of two picture formats; these are listed in the top two lines of Table 5.1 . The ATSC Standard also enables the delivery digital sound in various formats."

References:
1. OET -- Redirect
2. http://www.atsc.org/standards.html (HDTV definition page #12)
3. http://www.atsc.org/standards/practices/a_54a.pdf (Table 5.1 - page #24)

Table 5.1 (top two lines of ref #3):

Vertical Lines Pixels Aspect Ratio Picture Rate
1080 1920 16:9 60i, 30p, 24p
720 1280 16:9 60p, 30p, 24p

What D* and E* have been doing is stealing lines of horizontal resolution to create what is known as HD-Lite (1440x1080i, 1280x1080i), which does meet the ATSC standard and, in my opinion, does not look like HD.

I came across this Motorola document that states, "Although there are many formats possible for what has been referred to by the FCC as "DTV" (digital television - encompassing HD and SD programming), true HD are typically either 1920 x 1080i (interlaced) or 1280 x 720p (progressive) resolution."

FiOS TV is the HD leader currently offering 117 National and 10 Local HD channels in my area. According to my last observation, D* and E* offer no HD channels, but this may have changed in the past few months.

 

[JosephB]

The lawsuit specifically said that DirecTV guaranteed 1080i at 19.4mbps. No DirecTV ad has ever said that, and from a standards perspective, ATSC is 19.4. ATSC is not HD. 1080i and 720p are HD, but if you're comparing to SD, anything higher than 480i is "high" definition. There's no standards body that specifies what is and isn't high definition.