Google Nexus Phone Defect Class Action Lawsuit Claims Trimmed

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A judge strikes some claims from a proposed class action lawsuit against Google and Huawei alleging that a default prevents Nexus 6P phones from starting and holding a charge properly.

On Monday, a California judge cut some consumer claims against the makers of the Nexus 6P — Google and Huawei.

According to U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman, certain claims around warranty, unjust enrichment, violation of state law, and fraud were insufficient.

In a multidistrict litigation, consumers claimed that their Nexus 6P phones are defective in such a way that prevents them from starting properly and holding a charge.

Allegedly, the phones would turn on and off, get stuck on the boot-up screen which the Nexus class action lawsuit called a “bootlooping” issue. Allegedly, the phones were nonfunctional because they would not advance past the boot-up screen.

Additionally, the Google, Huawei, Nexus class action lawsuit alleged that the Nexus 6P phones’ batteries would drain extremely quickly, or shut off when the screen indicated there was a fair amount of battery life left. Consumers claimed that in these cases, the phones could only be used when plugged in, because when the phones were plugged in, they would turn on, only turn off again when unplugged.

One consumer, Alex Gorbatchev, states that he purchased his Nexus 6P in October 2015, and that in 2016 and 2017, his phone would shut off and on without warning. Gorbatchev, like many of the consumers, allege that Google refused to replace or repair phones with this problem. In Gorbatchev’s case, as he claims, his phone was slightly out of warranty, so Google refused to replace it.

Allegedly, in cases in which the phones were within warranty, Google would “hide behind a cosmetic issue (such as a cracked benel or scratched screen) in order to avoid providing a replacement under the warranty.”

The Nexus 6P defect class action lawsuit claims that the phone’s makers knew or should have known that the phones were defective, yet they continued selling them to consumers nonetheless. However, according to Judge Labson Freeman, the consumers did not sufficiently establish that Google and Huawei knew of the phone’s defects when they sold them to consumers.

In her decision to strike this claim, the judge points to the fact that in October 2016, Google acknowledged that it was investigating a battery defect. She states that the consumers did not provide sufficient evidence that the company knew of the defect before October 2016.

Because of this determination, Judge Labson Freeman also tossed out the consumers’ fraud allegations that claimed Huawei and Google intentionally omitted and concealed information about the phones’ defects, with the intent to mislead consumers.

Other claims that were trimmed in the Nexus class action lawsuit included the following:

• Breach of express and implied warranty
• Violation of multiple consumer warranty acts
• Unjust enrichment claims
• Violation of state consumer protection statutes

The judge gave the consumers who brought the case until June 8 to amend their claims.

The consumers are represented by Benjamin F. Johns, Andrew W. Ferich and Jessica L. Titler of Chimicles & Tikellis LLP; and Daniel C. Girard, Jordan Elias, Adam E. Polk and Simon S. Grille of Girard Gibbs LLP.

The Google, Huawei Defective Nexus 6P Smartphone Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Nexus 6P Products Liability Litigation, Case No. 5:17-cv-02185, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On April 10, 2019, Google and Huawei requested preliminary approval of a$9.75 million settlementthat would resolve consumer claims that Nexus 6P smartphones are prone to battery drain and randomly booting up.

UPDATE 2: May 2019, theNexus 6P class action settlement website is now live, providing information to Class Members leading up to the opening of the claims filing period.

UPDATE 3: On Nov. 12, 2019, a federal judgegranted final approvedto a $9.75 million Nexus class action settlement resolving claims that the Google and Huawei smartphones were defective.

UPDATE 4: On Feb. 21, 2020, Top Class Actions viewers started receiving checks in the mail from the Nexus 6P smartphone class action settlement worth as much as $325. Congratulations to everyone who filed a claim and got PAID!