Duracell Class Action Says LED Flashlights Drain Batteries Quickly

LED flashlights manufactured by Duracell reportedly drain batteries even when they have been turned off, according to a recent class action lawsuit.

Duracell LED flashlights are reportedly marketed as “ideal” for emergencies and capable of providing up to an hour and a half of high intensity light and up to seven hours of low intensity light when used with Duracell batteries.

Likewise, the recommended Duracell batteries are advertised as having a “10 year storage lifespan” and touted as “the most trusted batteries in the world,” according to the Duracell class action lawsuit.

However, consumers relying on these representations ended up disappointed, according to Duracell class action allegations by plaintiffs Stanley Siddle and Jef Meeks.

The plaintiffs claim that certain Duracell LED flashlights are plagued with a “catastrophic” defect that causes the devices to drain battery power even when turned off.

“Specifically, these flashlights are defective in that they continuously and rapidly drain the installed batteries when their LED lights are switched OFF, thus causing the batteries stored inside these flashlights to become fully depleted and dead, in less than 30 days, instead of the 10- year advertised storage lifespan for the Duracell batteries sold with these flashlights or the replacement batteries sold separately,” the Duracell LED Flashlight class action lawsuit claims.

Siddle and Meeks state that the flashlight defect result in consumers being left without light when their flashlights, which were stored for emergency situations, cannot turn on. Even if the LED flashlights turn on, they allegedly fail to provide light for anywhere near the advertised performance times.

The Duracell class action lawsuit claims that consumers believe, based on Duracell representations, that they can store LED flashlights with batteries in strategic locations around their home and rely on the 10-year storage lifespan advertised on Duracell batteries.

However, the defect reportedly drains flashlight batteries far sooner than 10-years which leaves consumers in the dark during “critical emergency or even life-and-death situations” such as power outages, vehicle breakdowns, and natural disasters.

The Duracell flashlight class action says customers have been complaining about the issue since late 2014 in complaints both directly to the battery company and to retail distributors such as Amazon, Costco, and Home Depot.

Despite allegedly being aware of the problem, these parties have not made efforts to resolve consumer complaints – earning them a position as named defendants in Siddle and Meeks’ class action lawsuit.

In subsequent models of the LED flashlight, Duracell allegedly changed the packaging to include statements such as “eliminates power drain of batteries in off position” and “no battery drain in off position.”

Siddle and Meeks claim that these statements are admissions by Duracell that their former models suffered from the “rapid parasitic battery drain defect.”

Plaintiffs seek to represent a Class of consumers who purchased Duracell LED flashlight models 250, 300, or 350 from Duracell, Costco, Home Depot, or Amazon. They also seek to represent a Class of the same consumers from California who are protected under additional state laws such as the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act.

Plaintiffs and the proposed Class are represented by Timothy P. Rumberger of Law Offices of Timothy P. Rumberger.

The Duracell LED Flashlight Class Action Lawsuit is Siddle, et al. v. The Duracell Company, et al., Case No. 3:19-cv-00568, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On June 18, 2019, Duracell has requested that a class action lawsuit over allegedly defective flashlight batteries be dismissed.

UPDATE 2: On Aug. 20, 2020, Duracell will pay $2.2 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed against it over claims that the company defrauded customers who purchased some of its LED flashlights.