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Despite its efforts to have claims dismissed, Apple will have to face a class action lawsuit that takes issue with alleged defects in Apple Watches.
U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty did substantially reduce the claims in the Apple Watch screen defect class action lawsuit, but did not throw out the case entirely.
Judge McNulty preserved a claim of breach of express warranty in the case of some customers, but tossed two other allegations.
The Apple Watch defect class action lawsuit was filed by Gina Priano-Keyser in April 2019. She claimed that Series 1 and 2 (Second Generation) Apple Watches and Series 3 (Third Generation) Apple Watches possess a design defect. Allegedly, the defect causes the watches’ screens to shatter or crack unexpectedly.
According to Priano-Keyser, her watch’s screen cracked before her warranty was up. She aimed to represent both customers whose watches had failed before the warranty was up, and after.
Judge McNulty decided to allow Priano-Keyser to pursue breach of express warranty claims for customers whose watches failed before the warranty expired, but not on behalf of those customers whose watches failed after their warranty expired.
In reducing the number of claims in the Apple Watch class action lawsuit, Judge McNulty took a different tact than Apple did in arguing that the Apple Watch defect class action lawsuit should be dismissed as a whole.
Apple argued that Priano-Keyser, who had purchased a Series 3 watch, could not represent consumers who had purchased Series 1 and 2 watches. According to the judge, it was appropriate for Priano-Keyser to represent consumers who had purchased all three kinds of watches, in case the defect is the same.
Apple had also attempted to claim that Priano-Keyser’s allegations were not within the scope of Apple’s warranty for the watches, because they concerned a design defect and not a manufacturing one. However, Judge McNulty said that the distinction between a design defect and a manufacturing defect was not an appropriate one to make at this stage in the process.
According to the judge, a previous decision he had made in a different case pointed to the fact that the design versus manufacturing distinction should be made later.
He said that “where the distinction between a defect in design and defect in workmanship is a matter of semantics,” and because Priano-Keyser had sufficiently established that the alleged defect is a manufacturing problem, Apple’s characterization of the alleged defect “should not control whether the complaint survives.”
Have you experienced problems with your Apple Watch? Share your experiences in the comment section below.
The Apple Watch owners are represented by James Shah and Natalie Finkelman Bennett of Shepherd Finkelman Miller & Shah LLP, and by John Edgar and Brendan McNeal of Edgar Law Firm LLC.
The Apple Watch Screen Break Class Action Lawsuit is Gina Priano-Keyser v. Apple Inc., Case No. 2:19-cv-09162, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
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172 thoughts onApple Watch Class Action To Proceed, Court Rules
I believe the battery issues continue with the 6th generation of the apple watch
Serious burn, raised, red raw skin with marks from the three balls, over a week later and still raw, raised and pink.
I have had the same problem. with three small ball blisters on my wrist which happened on October 17,2021. I have called Apple and brought it into a store and they contact me daily but have done nothing. I still have a scar on my wrist 3 weeks later.
I too have recently been burned 2nd degree burn on my wrist they replaced my watch. I am still healing and it will scar but they quit calling. Mine got infected and my hand swelled. But they said they’re investigating it even though they already said it was a bad battery. And I had the watch a year.
My gen 3 watch face shattered and I was walking from my car to my front door. What shocked me was my neighbor had just asked what the time was and within minutes later I was shocked to my glass shattered.. then the watch over heated!
Apple Store sent me an email yo repair but wanted the repair to be pre-paid for before allowing me to ship it back.
I was badly burned. Thought it was a reaction to wearing Jewlery around the watch. I let it heal (approximately 3 weeks till red burn circle went away) then i wore the watch again only by itself. Within 2 days my wrist was badly burned again. I have the pictures
Mine has done the same thing. Battery is visibly swollen and face will not go back on. Apple wants$$$ to repair when this obviously an ongoing problem.
My watch face has detached from the watch. It looks like a swollen battery. I was told to replace the battery it would be $90 and to repair the watch would cost $255!
I brought my son an Apple Watch SE space Gray Aluminum 44 mm Case with Sport Band for a Christmas present December 2020. He texted me and told me that his Apple watch just burned him and send me pictures. I contacted Apple and informed them of the issue I was asked information and my son was also was asked a series of questions that he answered and customer support got back with my son and told him it was an irritation. An irritation does not leave burn mark, nor does it leave a sore or scalp on his waist. I feel that Apple does not want to accept responsible for this and I need to know what I need to do. Since this watch was not even a year old.
I have the series 1 watch. I was just told from Apple customer service that my Watch is over 1000 days out of warranty that there is nothing that they can do. They wanted to charge me $299 to get it repaired. I just noticed yesterday the face is starting to come off slightly towards the bottom of my watch. I take very good care of it and I have never dropped it. There are no cracks and I can’t pop it back in place. Please add me to this lawsuit.
My watch shattered randomly. I was standing outside and it was fine, and then 10min later in the same situation. I turned my wrist again — no impact against anything—and it was shattered out of nowhere.
When swimming with my watch 3; my watch went to black screen and have not been able to used it sent.