Class action lawsuit against Celestron

[kittenshark]

Just FYI.
Consumers are not happy.
Retailers are not happy.
Somewhat related to the Orion vs Meade/Ningbo Sunny (same lawyer bringing about the lawsuit)

https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/consumer-products/household/telescope-class-action-alleges-price-fixing-scheme/?fbclid=IwAR01hG_ydHc5Lha3KoTtVFgEo 07T99Pncr8AzcciB-HDGjYm6viCA_JlWKE

[FlashDrive]

Ooooh ... !! naughty

[multiweb]

:lol: Oh well, you don't delocalise production, sell assets O/S then come and complain when it comes to bite you back in the ass. If you're willing to pay a little more for a domestic product then that's a good choice.

[drylander]

Seeing as the head office is in china I can't see anything changing at the moment with the party being so belligerent regardless of how it will affect chinese businesses in the future.:confused2:
will be watching with interest.
Pete

[multiweb]

Business with China is a wild card in today's economy or what's going to be left of it. Too much dependency right now originally driven by low production costs. Maybe the new model will take into account local production at a higher cost but with flow through back to the local community closer to home. One can dream. I see a lot of borders and trade disputes emerging in Europe already. A lot of tension. People protests.

[glend]

Synta pretty much monopolises the Australian market as well, as it owns Celestron and Skywatcher brands, and imports both through TASCO. GSO is still standalone as far as I can tell, with Andrews the major importer of their products, but Bintel badge GSO scopes but it is unclear how import happens, perhaps direct.

[kittenshark]

Tasco had blocked those who were direct importing celestron as authorized dealers and jacked up prices to the point they are unviable. They will lie to everyone to suit themselves. It is well known in the industry.

Double whammy for aussie buyers. Global monopoly and local monopoly. :mad2:

[billdan]

Quote

"Hightower says that as a result of this conspiracy, he and his fellow putative Class Members have overpaid for telescopes by at least $350 million."

Where does that figure come from, that can't be an annual figure surely, the telescope market is not that big. If each person overpaid by $200 per scope that suggests there are 1,750,000 scopes sold in the US each year, unlikely I would think.

So that $350 Million must be over a period of time , 5 years , ten years or more ???

The law suit also says the fine/penalty should be triple that amount to stop other Cartels from doing likewise.


So where does that leave the US manufacturer of scopes, struggling to compete against the imported scopes already, knowing that Celestron and Skywatcher will be forced to drop their prices by $200 or more per scope.