Judge Tosses iPhone 4 Glass Class Action Lawsuit

By Sarah Mirando | September 10, 2012

Category: Apple Class Action Lawsuit and Settlement News

By Mike Holter

iPhone 4 broken glass A federal judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit from iPhone 4 owners who claim Apple knew the phone contained a design flaw that makes it’s glass casing more prone to breaking, saying “it is a well-known fact of life that glass can break under impact.”

Lead Plaintiff Betsalel Williamson filed the iPhone 4 glass class action lawsuit in 2011, claiming that just two days after purchasing the phone for $320 it sustained spider cracks across the back glass panel after falling from the arm of a chair. Apple charged him $29 for a replacement panel. Williamson says earlier versions of the iPhone never would have cracked from such a short fall, and that he never would have purchased the iPhone 4 if he knew the glass housing on the phone was more susceptible to cracking during normal usage than earlier iPhone versions.

The iPhone 4 class action lawsuit argued that Apple’s ads were misleading, which showed late CEO Steve Jobs demonstrating the phone’s strength by bending the iPhone 4 glass and claiming the glass is “20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic” as well as “ultradurable and more scratch resistance than ever.” The class action lawsuit also cited a study that found the iPhone 4 glass breaks at an 82% higher rate than the iPhone 3G, and that iPhone 4 owners reported 68% more accidents than for the 3G.

U.S. District Judge Edward Davila threw out the class action lawsuit last week, saying the marketing claims were “mere puffery” and not a promise that could be the basis of a lawsuit. He also said iPhone 4 owners failed to show that Apple breached its warranty or violated California’s consumer protection laws, saying normal usage does not include dropping the phone.

“It seems a suspension of logic to say that the marketing campaign described in the [class action lawsuit], which notably has nothing to do with phone-dropping, somehow erases these images from the collective experience such that the reasonable consumer could expect that glass could not break if dropped,” Judge Davila wrote.

Despite granting Apple’s motion to dismiss the class action lawsuit, Davila granted Williamson 21 days to amend the complaint to show how Apple specifically deceived iPhone 4 customers.

A copy Judge Davila’s order in the iPhone 4 Glass Class Action Lawsuit can be read here.

The case is Betsalel Williamson v. Apple, Inc., Case No. 11-cv-377 EJD, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, San Jose Division.