(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Web hosting provider NaviSite (www.navisite.com) has been granted final approval by a federal judge in Baltimore to a $1.67 million class-action settlement between the web host and more than 5,500 of its customers whose websites were knocked offline for extended periods during a failed server migration.
The 5,500 NaviSite customers — which comprise of business and personal website owners and larger resellers from around the world — will be compensated with four times their monthly bills from the web host.
The payouts, which will be sent out to customers within a month, range from $10 to more than $10,000, said lead lawyer Stuart A. Davidson, who called the decision to settle the case “a no-brainer.”
NaviSite seemed to agree with Davidson’s take. “We just wanted to put this behind us in a way that was most beneficial for our customers and our shareholders,” said Rathin Sinha, NaviSite’s chief marketing officer.
Davidson’s law firm, Coughlin, Stoia, Geller, Rudman & Robbins LLP, will receive $495,000 separate and apart from the settlement fund.
On November 3, 2007, thousands of NaviSite customers’ websites went down for more than three days when the web host attempted to replace a group of old servers operated by Alabanza, which the company had acquired earlier that year.
NaviSite’s new customers began experiencing issues with their email and websites, which ranged anywhere from a couple days to weeks.
In total, almost 200,000 websites were affected by the failed server migration.
Though the issues were eventually resolved, Davidson contends that the damage had already been done.
