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GE brings good things to life, except when its dishwashers catch fire. The parties have reached a $780,000 settlement in an enforcement action filed against manufacturing giant General Electric Company on behalf of New York consumers who allegedly purchased new GE dishwashers in 1999. The action alleged that the company convinced consumers to purchase new dishwashers by fraudulently concealing the availability of a quick, inexpensive repair that would prevent fires in certain recalled models. Eligible claimants should contact the New York State Attorney General's office for information on the settlement.

A lawsuit was filed against telecom giant Verizon Communications, Inc. accusing the company of violating the law and the privacy of its customers by joining with the National Security Agency ("NSA") in its massive and illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications.

A class action lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from Microsoft is scheduled to go to trial in November 2006. The lawsuit recently made its way to the Iowa Supreme Court for the third time. If the trial is successful, thousands of Iowans who bought computers loaded with Microsoft programs since 1994 could get money back.

On June 24, 2005, The U.S. Supreme Court handed a victory to 11,000 small gas station owners in the longstanding class action battle against ExxonMobil Corp. The case centered on Exxon's August 1982 discount-for-cash program, which promised station owners a price cut for gas to offset a new credit card fee the oil company was charging them. The station owners alleged that Exxon, which later merged with Mobil, eliminated the price discount seven months later, yet for years continued to tell stations that it was providing the discount.

Even department stores and perfume companies can fix prices, it seems. On March 30, 2005 the court granted final approval for a $175 million settlement in an action filed against major department stores and cosmetic makers on behalf of U.S. residents who purchased certain cosmetics and fragrances from the defendant department stores between May 29, 1994, and July 16, 2003. The action alleged that the stores and manufacturers conspired together to fix prices in violation of federal antitrust laws. Claims must be postmarked on or before March 26, 2004, to be considered valid.

Several class actions have been filed against fast food giant McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD) and certain of its officers and directors by stockholders who purchased the company's common stock between December 14, 2001, and January 22, 2003. The actions claim that the defendants violated federal securities laws by issuing a series of material misrepresentations to the market over this time period, thereby artificially inflating the price of the company's securities.

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