For those of you wondering about the class action lawsuit against Commission Junction (CJ.com), the official hearing is to take place tomorrow, January 5th, 2009. Many publishers and advertisers alike have many questions about what the lawsuit is for and how it is going to effect them. They have sent out emails last year providing the information about the settlements and also created a website offering full legal details of the lawsuit. See my blog about the cj settlement for complete details.
You could be getting part of the settlement if you are a publisher and they lose their case. Which it looks like they will. The lawsuit is for 1 million. After attorney expenses this is how compensation works Each Publisher with a claim of more than $1.00 will receive a pro rata share of the Publisher Fund equal to the percentage of total commissions it received between April 20, 2003 and July 22, 2008. For example, if a Publisher received 1 % of the total commissions paid on the CJ Network during that period, it will receive approximately 1 % of the Publisher Fund. Advertisers are paid in a similar way. Some will receive more, while others will get less. It is based on your historical performance with cj. I think I am around 3-4% because I used to make a killin as a publisher. However, the entire lawsuit is based on incorrect payouts through fraud on cj's part so who knows how it will really be calculated in the end.
If CJ loses the case, I estimate that each individual payout will be just enough to nearly buy a cookie at Subway. *** after attorney expenses ***
the Company that is handling this settlement is Epiq Systems here in lovely Portland, Oregon. I work there. And yes you will be able to buy a cookie at subway but you might need a coupon.