Best Buy, Monster Face $5M HDMI Cable Class Action Lawsuit

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Best Buy and Monster Inc. face a proposed $5 million false advertising class action lawsuit over allegations of misleading consumers into purchasing a Monster brand HDMI cable over a basic HDMI cable by suggesting certain HDTVs will only work with a Monster cable.

According to the Monster HDMI cables class action lawsuit, the packaging on Monster cables misrepresents that 1080p and 4K HDTVs will not work properly unless consumers use Monster HDMI cables.

However, technology experts say that the high-priced Monster HDMI cables have no effect on video quality. “Claims that more expensive cables put forth greater video or audio fidelity are nonsense; it’s like saying you can get better-looking YouTube videos on your laptop by buying more expensive Ethernet cables,” the class action lawsuit quotes. “From a technical standpoint, it simply doesn’t make sense.”

Lead plaintiff Benjamin Perez of California alleges he carefully reviewed the Monster HDMI cable package and paid a premium price which was 1,748 percent higher than a basic HDMI cable. Perez claims that the Monster HDMI package stated that a cable with a bandwidth greater than 10.2 Gbps was needed to transmit video to his television but then later Perez found out that statement wasn’t true. Perez claims he would not have purchased the Monster cable for $189 had he known that the promised benefit was “illusory.”

The HDMI cable class action lawsuit states that Best Buy promotes, advertises and distributes Monster HDMI cables to hundreds of thousands of U.S. customers due to false and misleading representation. In a recent comparison, the plaintiff claims that an average price of a Monster Black Platinum Ultimate 9-foot cable, which retails for $119.99, compared with the price of a 9.8-foot high-speed HDMI cable produced by AmazonBasics, which retails for $6.49, shows just how much Monster is overcharging for their product.

Perez filed the potential $5 million class action lawsuit against Best Buy and Monster Inc. accusing the companies of negligent misrepresentation and omissions “intended to induce and actually induced” the plaintiff and other consumers into purchasing a Monster HDMI cable.

The Monster HDMI cable class action lawsuit also alleges that the defendants violated California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act by using unfair methods of competition and fraudulent acts “in that they misrepresent the particular characteristics, benefits and quantities of the goods.”

If approved, the Monster HDMI cables class action lawsuit would seek to represent a nationwide class open to all Class Members who purchased a Monster HDMI cable. Perez is also seeking two additional subclasses; one that would include all Class Members who purchased a Monster HDMI cable from Best Buy and another subclass that would be open to all Class Members who purchased a Monster HDMI cable in California.

The plaintiff is represented by L. Timothy Fisher, Julia A. Luster and Scott A. Bursor of Bursor & Fisher P.A.

The Monster HDMI Cables Class Action Lawsuit is Perez v. Monster Inc., et al, Case No. 3:15-cv-03885, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On Jan. 20, 2016, a California federal judge refused to dismiss the Monster HDMI class action lawsuit but dropped some of the claims against Monster and Best Buy.