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ABC's 10 News San Diego claims that, as a result of a class-action lawsuit, I'm eligible for a refund of "between $45 and $70" for a class action lawsuit over milk purchases.

They recommend that I go to this website to register for payout. However, looking through the information on this website, it appears that the articles actually linked on these pages... don't seem to indicate that "BoughtMilk.com" is the correct place to register in the class action lawsuit.

For example, the site links out to this page, a Huffington Post article about this class action. But the article doesn't link back to BoughtMilk, which makes me suspicious about the site's origins and the way it pushes you to believe it's real and that this is free money.

This is ringing all sorts of "too good to be true" alarms in my head.

Before I give my personal information to a mysterious website for a vaguely-described lawsuit, my questions are these:

  1. Is it actually true that there exists a formal class-action lawsuit against the California dairy industry?
  2. Is the estimated payout of "between $45 and $70" accurate? Where did this number come from? Who's claiming this?
  3. Is the site "BoughtMilk.com" the correct place to register with this lawsuit, supposing it's real? How do I verify it?
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  • The Huffington Post story you linked to does link to boughtmilk.com, with the link text "details are here."
    – Kevin
    Jan 22, 2017 at 23:44

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1.Is it actually true that there exists a formal class-action lawsuit against the California dairy industry?

yes, but it is not limited to California.

the case is:

Matthew Edwards v. National Milk Producers Federation,
Case No. 4:11-cv-04766-JSW
District Court for the Northern District of California

2.Is the estimated payout of "between $45 and $70" accurate? Where did this number come from? Who's claiming this?

No, the total amount for everyone collectively in all the relevant states combined is $52,000,000. The amount per person depends upon the number of people who register. The website linked to the article says they continuously change the projected amount per person displayed on the website based upon the number of people who register. Currently, 22 January 2017, it says "between $5 to $15".

3.Is the site "BoughtMilk.com" the correct place to register with this lawsuit, supposing it's real? How do I verify it?

This official court document http://cok.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Dairy-Antitrust-Settlement-2016.pdf says it is correct:

In addition, the address for the dedicated case website has been updated from www.freshmilkpricefixing.com to www.boughtmilk.com, because the notice administrator believes the latter will be more effective. The proposed revised long form Legal Notice of Settlement has been updated throughout to reflect this change.

For further confirmation see Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP Announces Settlement of Matthew Edwards v. National Milk Producers Federation Litigation

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