Creative settles over MP3 player capacities

Creative becomes the second company behind Seagate to settle with consumers over exaggerated drive capacity.

Creative was accused of misrepresenting the number of files and hours of songs that players could hold, as well as inflating capacities by as much as seven percent.

While Seagate's settlements dealt with its hard drives, Creative's deals with its MP3 players. Any consumer who bought a player between May 5, 2001 and April 30, 2008 is eligible to receive a settlement.

The terms of the deal call for Creative to "make certain disclosures regarding the storage capacity of its hard disc drive MP3 players," in addition to giving those affected the option to purchase a new 1GB player at 50 percent of the retail price, or receive 20 percent off a product at the company's store.

Consumers are eligible to file one claim per player purchased during that period, with no limit to the number of claims, according to the class-action notice. All claims need to be submitted by August 7.

As is customary with many of these settlements, "Creative has denied and continues to deny each and all of plaintiffs' claims, and denies that anyone has been harmed or deserves compensation" due to its actions.

Plaintiffs' attorneys are seeking $900,000 in attorney fees as well as $5,000 in monetary awards for the main plaintiffs.

Creative had no immediate comment on the settlement.