Western Digital Pays $2.7M to End Hard Drive False Ad Class Action Lawsuit

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A $2.7 million settlement was proposed Friday in a class action lawsuit accusing Western Digital Corporation of falsely advertising its WD Red NAS hard drive.  

Class Members may be able to claim a class action rebate of between $4 and $7 for each WD Red Network Attached Storage (NAS) hard drive they purchased from Western Digital without proof of purchase. Class Members may be entitled to an additional award amounting to more than $150 with proof.  

In addition, Western Digital has agreed to make disclosures about the technology on the products’ packaging, although the company admits no wrongdoing under the terms of the proposed settlement.  

Lead plaintiffs Nicholas Malone, Chris Ayers, James Backus, Brian Conway, David Eaton, Steven Gravel, James Raaymakers, and Tod Weitzel filed the class action lawsuit in 2020. They claimed that Western Digital had deliberately misrepresented its WD Red NAS hard drive and Redundant Array of Independent Disk (RAID) devices.  

The plaintiffs alleged that Western Digital used inappropriate and below industry-standard technology in their hard drives, putting consumers at higher risk of losing their data. Western Digital used Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) technology, explained the class action lawsuit, rather than Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR) technology.  

Western Digital allegedly failed to disclose that it used SMR technology on the hard drive packaging. The class action lawsuit contended that there was no way consumers could know that they were not getting a product that included CMR technology, paying as much as $145.99 for certain types of Western Digital hard drives.  

If approved, the settlement will provide class action rebates to those who purchased a WD Red NAS Drive using SMR technology between October 2018 and the date of preliminary approval of the settlement, say court documents.  

The proposed settlement will still need to be approved by the court. Top Class Actions will continue to monitor developments and provide updates.  

Did you purchase a Western Digital WD Red NAS hard drive? Will you take part in this class action settlement? Tell us in the comment section below! 

The plaintiffs are represented by Yitzchak Kopel and L. Timothy Fisher of Bursor & Fisher P.A. and Daniel M. Hattis and Paul Karl Lukacs of Hattis & Lukacs.  

The Western Digital Hard Drive Class Action Lawsuit is Malone, et al. v. Western Digital Corporation, Case No. 5:20-cv-03584-NC in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.  

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