Symantec Extended Download Service Lawsuit – Digital River Fraud?

Just over four years ago, I wrote an article about whether or not consumers should spend the extra money for an extended download service for their purchased software. To summarize, if you were to buy the latest Norton Antivirus software, you’d be presented with the option of adding “download insurance” that gives you the opportunity to re-download your software should anything happen to it in. While this may have seemed like an awesome feature, it was being sold using a typical scare tactic — buy now or forever hold your peace.

Consumers were left to feel like if they didn’t buy the service, they were running the risk of not being able to acquire the software again should they lose the disc or the original downloaded installer. I could never understand their logic for this since anyone could easily download the latest trial version of the software from the company’s website and install it using the purchase serial number to make it a fully registered program. Well, as I quietly suspected way back then, the legal doors have been opened and a class-action lawsuit is underway for those who have been duped into this service.

The Lawsuit

I am simply passing on a message to my visitors that was given to me by a representative of Cohen Milstein. I was contacted due to my past article about how not to be duped into paying for a useless service and I wish to pass along any information related to the case for those of you who may have a claim.

A formal complaint against Symantec Corp. and Digital River, Inc. (Symantec’s former online digital delivery service) was filed in the District Court of Minnesota on April 14th, 2011. In it, the plaintiffs argue that both Symantec and Digital River knowingly opted customers into the extended download service without informing them that the service was not actually needed and provided zero benefits to the purchase.

As of March 31st, 2014, a Class Certification Order has been issued.

Filing a claim

If you feel you belong to the class of plaintiffs in this case, you should contact your own attorney and/or speak to someone representing the case. I have added the links above that lead to the various documents regarding this case, but if you need more information please visit: http://www.cohenmilstein.com/cases/334/symantec-corp-litigation