LG Energy Star Class Action Lawsuit

LG Electronics is facing its second class action lawsuit in just over a month over its French door refrigerators. The latest class action claims LG rigged and falsified the results of energy-efficiency tests on its French door refrigerators in order to sell them with the ENERGY STAR logo for a premium price.

The LG Class Action Lawsuit alleges LG deliberately disabled key components of the icemakers on these refrigerators during energy testing, resulting in “significant underreporting of energy consumption.” This was done so that the refrigerators could be labeled and sold with the ENERGY STAR logo. ENERGY STAR is a government-backed program used to identify and promote energy-efficient products in order to reduce energy consumption and reduce pollution through labeling products that meet the highest energy conservation standards. Appliances with the ENERGY STAR logo are more expensive but come with the promise of reduced energy bills that, over time, will generate enough savings to recoup the higher price.

“The message conveyed by the ENERGY STAR logo is that you can maximize your energy and dollar savings while helping to protect the environment…” but “…LG’s rigged testing and misrepresentations destroyed that bargain,” the lawsuit says.  “The mislabeled refrigerators do not meet the ENERGY STAR standards for energy efficiency, and some models do not even meet the minimum standards for energy efficiency under federal law.”

According to the lawsuit, independent tests by the Department of Energy found that two of LG’s ENERGY STAR-rated models — LFX21975 and LFX25975 — showed these models consumed 20-35% more energy than LG had previously reported.

The mislabeled refrigerators include, but are not limited to, the following LG French Door and Three-Door Models:

LFX28977

LFX25975

LFX21975

LMX25985

7973

7975

7978

The proposed class action lawsuit is seeking to certify a class of all individuals who purchased the mislabeled LG refrigerator models, not for resale, in the United States. It is seeking damages, prejudgment interest and restitution for class members, in addition to attorneys’ fees and other expenses. A copy of the LG Refrigerator ENERGY STAR Class Action Lawsuit can be read here.