Leased Your '92-99 Mercedes-Benz in NY/NJ?

[MTI]

Mercedes lessees to join price-fixing suit

People who leased Mercedes-Benz cars in the New York area will be able to sue the company and dealers on price-fixing charges, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

The lessees join a class-action lawsuit brought in 1999 on behalf of purchasers and lesses of Mercedes cars in the New York area from 1992 to 1999. The defendants--who include Mercedes-Benz USA, more than 20 Mercedes dealers in the tristate area, and accounting firm Sheft Khan & Co.--had argued that only car buyers could sue, but U.S. District Judge William Walls of New Jersey asserted that lesses were also entitled to take legal action.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said this is the first published decision to "directly address whether persons who lease, rather than purchase, a product can sue for injury as a result of conduct which violates the federal antitrust laws."

Several of the dealership defendants previously agreed to pay about $5 million to settle the charges.