Primary plaintiffs Steven Keenholtz and Dorothy Guillicksen recently reached a class action settlement with several Massachusetts newspapers. The class action settlement involves GateHouse Media LLC and associated newspaper publishing companies. Keenholtz and Guillicksen allege GateHouse Media LLC “failed to properly disclose several surcharges connected to the publication subscriptions.”
Gatehouse Media LLC publishes dozens of weekly newspapers. The primary plaintiffs claimed they purchased a one-year and 26-week subscriptions to newspapers published by GateHouse Media LLC. In addition to mailing the subscribed newspapers, GateHouse Media also sent a premium monthly magazine, without consent from subscribers. The premium magazine called Lens is replete with fluff articles and bold advertisements, and the plaintiffs emphasize the magazine is not connected to the newspaper subscriptions.
GateHouse Media is charged with billing customers for the Lens magazine $2 per issue, despite customers not requesting the magazine. Plaintiffs assert GateHouse Media reduced the length of the newspaper subscriptions to account for the $2 magazine surcharge. A subscriber that signed a one-year subscription deal might only receive 30 weeks worth of newspaper deliveries. The plaintiffs argue that GateHouse violated Massachusetts consumer protection laws.
What You Need to Know
According to the class action settlement website www.GHMClassAction.com, the settlement class includes members who, between April 1, 2014 and March 21, 2017, “resided in Massachusetts, purchased a subscription to a GateHouse Media publication from GateHouse Media, received one or more Premium Edition publications, were charged a surcharge for the Premium Editions, and had the expiration date of their subscription accelerated based on the surcharge amount of the Premium Editions published during the Class Period.” The key phrase here is “one or more Premium Edition publications” A judge has included class members that received just one edition of the premium magazine.
Class members filing a valid and timely claim form can opt for either a cash refund or a subscription extension. The subscription extension covers the remainder of the original subscription length. In the example above, the subscriber who signed up for a one-year subscription, but only received 30 weeks of newspapers, would be eligible to receive 22 more weeks of newspapers. Eligible class members must submit a claim form that presents contact information, date of purchase, and the last four digits of the credit card used to make the newspaper subscriptions. The deadline for the filing the claim form is July 19, 2017. Steven Keenholtz, M.D. and Dorothy Guillicksen v. GateHouse Media LLC, et al., Case No. 1777-CV-00184, in the Superior Court for Essex County, Massachusetts is scheduled to conduct a final hearing on August 1, 2017. Class counsel includes Jason M. Leviton of Block & Leviton LLP. David G. Thomas of Greenberg Traurig LLP represents the defendants in the class action lawsuit.
