Earlier this month, Howard Stern sued Sirius XM, and now a U.S. district judge ruled that that the satellite radio company must face a class action suit.
The class action suit claims that Sirius XM abused its monopoly power by raising prices almost 30 percent. The price hikes included pass-through royalty fees and also usage fees for the Internet and multiple radios.
The suit was originally filed in 2009 by subscribers, but the Manhattan court ruled this week that the case may proceed as a class action. The complaint asks for unspecified damages.
The court also ruled in Sirius XM’s favor: it dismissed claims filed under 20 state consumer protection laws, according to Bloomberg.
Sirius XM said “The surviving claims in this suit — that the Sirius-XM merger lessened competition or led to a monopoly — are matters that have already been passed upon by the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission,” said a spokesman, Bloomberg reported. “With new competitors emerging almost daily, we continue to believe these claims are without merit and intend to vigorously defend this matter,” added the spokesman.
Source: Bloomberg
Art via Satellite Radio Playground
yes, xm is truly a rip off, but it wont be long until another company knocks them out…
and I must agree nass j, argue about the gas prices, not radio service. on the other hand, we live in a free country, if sirius was the smart ones to merge with xm and create this monopoly. then they deserve to have whatever prices they want, if it was you the one who owned the company, you would also do the same thing..
I don’t know why people complain about such things like that. after all its a luxury service is not something you need that bad or your life depends on. You have a choice to accept and pay the price or don’t get the service and keep your money. Now as for bored judge if I was him I do Sue my own government for the monopoly of gas pricing. Which our lifes depends on for daily basis and we have no choice but to pay the greedy price of your greedy government Mr judge. Find something better to do because you get paid good enough from our tax money to pay for high gas so as well you can afford to pay sirius xm radio
Try HD radio for a while. When I got the invoice from Sirius to renew at $137.50 for the year. That did it. If you hold out when you contract expires , you can get 6 months cheaper. But I am sick of paying for every little service.
New competition is from competeing technologies. Smart phone’s w music streaming, etc.. Thier card is their premium content, which just sued them.
New competitors emerging almost daily? Where may we find these competitors??