Yahoo Settlement Payouts In OMS Case Begin

Yahoo is distributing payments in the Online Merchant Systems class action
settlement over alleged flaws in its bidding system.

The case was settled I believe in 2006 (the settlement

agreement, PDF format, is undated). A final judgment was entered in April of
this year, with notification to happen by June 9,

according to the class action’s web site:

On April 25, 2007, the Court entered the Final Judgment and Order of
Dismissal with Prejudice in the Online Merchant Systems v. Yahoo! action.
Notification related to processed claims will be distributed via e-mail on or
before June 9, 2007, to claimants who submitted a claim form for this
Settlement.

Frank Watson over at Search Engine Watch
reported this
week on being one of the people receiving refunds. As for the case itself, the
key issue according to the case notice (PDF)
was this:

The Action alleges that when the System’s budgeting feature was used,
certain advertisers would be removed from search results when their daily
budgets had been fully exhausted, but their bids would remain visible for
other bidders to see in a manner that did not indicate that Event Date.

A previous version said the payments were related to the Yahoo settlement of
a click fraud class
action case. That’s an entirely different case, and payments are not being
sent out in it yet. Most comments below relate to that earlier version.