Samsung Galaxy S4 Battery Class Action Lawsuit Sent to Arbitration

On Nov. 3, arbitration was granted to Samsung Telecommunications America LLC by the Illinois federal judge presiding over the Samsung smartphone battery class action lawsuit, which alleges the Galaxy S4 smartphone batteries are defective. The judge found in favor of Samsung, ruling the warranty for the Galaxy phones contained an arbitration agreement that prevents any claims against Samsung Galaxy phones from going to trial in a class action lawsuit.

The named plaintiffs of this Samsung Galaxy battery class action lawsuit argued that the arbitration clause in the warranty was invalid because they were never given an opportunity by Samsung to reject the terms of warranty, especially the arbitration agreement. The plaintiffs further claim the current option to opt-out of Samsung’s dispute resolution procedure is not enough to resolve plaintiff claims.

However, U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber rejected plaintiffs’ arguments stating, “As far as the arbitration provision is concerned there is no reason to reject the product just on the basis of loss of access to the courts, because by taking a relatively simple act one can be excluded from the arbitration requirement.” In his motion to grant arbitration for the Samsung Galaxy battery class action lawsuit, Judge Leinenweber also stated it was not unheard or unreasonable for a company like Samsung to include an arbitration clause in a larger document like a smartphone user guide or warranty agreement.

Additionally, according to the judge, because smartphones are electronic products with many varied capabilities, it would be reasonable to expect a Samsung smartphone consumer to review the user guide included with the product. The plaintiffs did argue that the provision for arbitration in the Samsung Galaxy S4 product user guide was difficult to find and effectively concealed from them and other consumers.

Judge Leinenweber disagreed and referred to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case Hill v. Gateway 2000 in which the court ruled, “a contract need not be read to be enforced, people who do not read a contract run the risk that the unread terms may in retrospect prove unwelcome.” In light of this, the plaintiff and defendants involved in this Samsung smartphone battery class action lawsuit filed in Illinois federal court will proceed with arbitration.

In September, in California federal court, a similar Samsung Galaxy battery class action lawsuit was given an opposite ruling with the presiding judge finding against Samsung and declined to order arbitration. In that case, U.S. District Judge James Donato ruled the arbitration agreement included in the Samsung Galaxy S4 could not be enforced because the arbitration provision did not require a consumer signature or include words or phrases to alert smartphone consumers that the terms of arbitration were meant to act as a contract.

Plaintiffs John McNamara, Tony Gugliotta, Melissa Nelson, and Rudy Woodward  are represented by Siprut PC, Lite DePalma Greenberg LLC, Edelman Combs Latturner & Goodwin LLC and Gordon Law Offices Ltd.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Battery Class Action Lawsuit is McNamara, et al. v. Samsung Telecommunications America LLC, et al., Case No. 1:14-cv-01676, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.