Facts

Emily Fishman filed a putative class action against Tiger Natural Gas Inc., Community Gas Center Inc., and John Dyet in relation to CGC's practice of calling Pacific Gas and Electric customers to promote Tiger's capped-rate program program for supplying natural gas.

PLAINTIFFS' CONTENTIONS: Plaintiffs alleged misrepresentations were made by CGC, and other Dyet telemarketing companies, during the phone solicitations to PG&E customers as to Tiger's program/pricing and PG&E pricing trends, and the sales calls were recorded by defendants without customers' consent. Plaintiffs alleged violations of California's Recording Law, breach of oral contract, violations of PG&E Gas Rule 23, breach of third-party beneficiary contract, violations of California's Consumers Legal Remedies Act, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, violations of Regulations on Core Transport Agents, violations of False Advertising Law, and violations of Unfair Competition Law.

DEFENDANTS' CONTENTIONS: Defendants denied the allegations and denied all liability.

Result

The parties reached a preliminarily approved settlement agreement, under which defendants agreed to pay $3.7 million into a settlement fund, net proceeds of which to be distributed equally between approximately 27,000 plaintiff class members.

Other Information

A final approval hearing has been set for June.