Safety Risks ‘Pervasive’ in Many Samsung Smartphones, Says New Complaint
Despite “well-chronicled safety concerns” with the Galaxy Note7, Samsung “continues to sell, market, and distribute other smartphones which are at risk of overheating, fire and explosion,” alleged a federal complaint (in Pacer) filed Thursday in California. The Note7 recall “was…
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a Band-Aid to a pervasive problem for which a major fix and repair was required,” but never implemented, said the complaint by San Diego resident Jesus Sanchez in U.S. District Court in San Jose, seeking class-action status. His complaint called the Note7 recall “a public relations effort to comfort the public that there was a technical fix to a pervasive problem.” Sanchez bought a Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone at a Costco in San Diego “and suffered the injuries and damage complained of herein,” said his complaint. His phone “runs hot,” the complaint said. While using the Galaxy S6, Sanchez “has experienced the device overheat while talking on the device and running applications,” which “impair and impede” its use, it said. Sanchez “is concerned the product is not safe and poses a risk of fire,” it said. His lawyers filed a motion (in Pacer) Thursday to link his case to a similar action (in Pacer) filed Nov. 2 and being tried before U.S. District Judge Beth Freeman in San Jose. It's the latest in a string of federal actions based on allegations that inherent risks unique to the lithium-ion batteries that Samsung uses in its various smartphones leave them vulnerable to harm even if plaintiffs in those class actions never claimed to have owned a recalled Note7 device (see 1612260003). The company didn’t comment Friday on the Sanchez complaint, but previously reacted to similar filings by saying it stands “behind the safety of the millions of Samsung phones in the U.S.” (see 1612280017).