As the result of a class-action lawsuit that ended last year, you may have some unused credit at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Kobo waiting to be spent. If so, this credit is set to expire on Saturday (June 24). So, after you finish reading this article, you should cash in before it's too late.

In 2009, Apple did a deal with a handful of publishers letting them set the prices paid for eBooks sold on iTunes. In return they had to agree not to sell those titles for less on rival platforms. This eventually led to lawsuits, and Apple being ordered to pay out $400 million to anyone adversely affected by the deal. As a result, millions of Americans received credit as compensation.

Spend Apple's Money While You Can

These credits are set to expire at midnight (PT) on Saturday June 24th. So you only have a few days left to spend any credits you have remaining on your account. Credits were awarded to millions of people who purchased eBooks from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo, amongst others.

As detailed by Inc.com, to check whether you have any credits on Amazon you need to do the following: Go to the page titled Information for 2016 Apple eBooks Antitrust Settlement, and sign into your Amazon account. You'll then see "Total Credit," "Unused Credit," and "Expiry Date".

Checking the amount of unclaimed credit you have elsewhere is trickier because none of the other retailers appear to have dedicated pages detailing the settlement. However, we have to assume any credits would have been assigned to your account, so log in to check. This is especially important if you haven't shopped at one of the affected retailers over the past 12 months.

Make Use Of Your Lawsuit Settlement

This underhanded effort by a handful of companies to collude to fix prices was pretty shameful. And everyone involved eventually paid for the misdemeanor. The onus is now on you to make sure you actually use the credits awarded to you as part of this class-action lawsuit settlement.

Have you checked to see if you have any credit at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Kobo? If so, how much did you receive? And what books did you buy with it? Should the doling out of credits have been better publicized? Please let us know in the comments below!

Image Credit: Paris Buttfield-Addison via Flickr