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LG Electronics USA Inc. has reached a class action settlement with customers who claim that the electronics company sold defective refrigerators, in a settlement could reach tens of millions of dollars.
The motion for preliminary approval of the class action settlement was filed by plaintiff Jeannette Clark on Tuesday in a California federal court.
According to the class action settlement, Clark and LG reached the settlement after extensive negotiations and “it provides substantial relief to many who would have no opportunity to obtain recourse for the damages they suffered.”
Class members in a nationwide class who purchased allegedly defective LG Signature Model refrigerators can receive up to $5,000 to cover the costs of property damage, which includes $500 for spoiled food, money to cover the repair of the refrigerator, a $1,500 credit to purchase a new refrigerator, if the refrigerator cannot be repaired, and an extended warranty.
The total settlement amount will be determined based on the number of class members who file claims.
According to Clark’s attorney’s, if $500 is given to 10 percent of the class for spoiled food and five percent received the $1,500 credit for a new refrigerator that would total $48.7 million.
In addition, Clark is asking for $367,000 in attorneys’ fees.
Clark filed the LG defective refrigerator class action lawsuit in December 2012, alleging that her LG Signature Model refrigerator that she purchased in October 2011 was defective, and that she started having problems after about one month after she purchased it.
According to Clark’s LG class action lawsuit, the ice system became easily clogged, which would sometimes burnout the motor and cause the entire refrigerator to stop working.
She claims that when she contacted LG’s customer service, the representative recommended that “she would have to empty the ice tray every day in order to prevent the ice system from clogging.”
In addition, she alleges that sometimes the refrigerator would stop working randomly and “display various error messages.”
When she contacted LG about this problem, she was told by the customer service representative that she would have “to unplug the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes and then plug it back in to reboot the refrigerator’s control board,” according to the class action lawsuit.
Clark alleges that due to all of these problems she had with her LG refrigerator that sometimes water would leak on the floor, which was both a safety hazard and caused damage. In addition, in the process of having to reboot the refrigerator, a lot of food started to spoil, which she had to throw out.
The LG refrigerator class action lawsuit was dismissed in June 2013 with the judge saying that the class had not been properly defined, but the judge gave Clark leave to amend the lawsuit. She refiled the class action lawsuit in July.
The allegations in the second class action lawsuit included a violation of the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, two violations of California’s business code, breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranty, and a violation of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey T. Miller dismissed some of the claims in October 2013, including the claims brought on behalf of “the general public” and the breach of express warranty charges. However, he said that the new amended lawsuit resolved the issues in the former complaint, and that Clark had showed a clear link between LG’s technological issues to the class.
In December 2013, Miller ordered both parties to attend and Early Neutral Evaluation Conference in January, which began the settlement process.
Clark is represented by Robert W. Thompson, Kathleen M. Hartman and Jessica Lulli of Callahan Thompson Sherman & Caudill LLP.
LG is represented by Tai H. Park and Amy Dieterich of Park & Jensen LLP, Pamela R. Hanebutt and Susan M. Razzano or Elmer Stahl LLP and John H. L’Estrange Jr. of Andrew E. Schouten of Wright & L’Estrange.
The LG Defective Refrigerator Class Action Lawsuit is Clark v. LG Electronics USA Inc. et al., Case No. 3:13-cv-00485, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
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132 thoughts onLG Reaches Settlement Over Defective Refrigerators
Just bought a new LG refrigerator in March this year. It has not worked since I bought it. They schedule repairmen, who require me to me home all day then never show. The warranty says they will repair or replace my refrigerator, their choice. They told me that it doesn’t give a time frame they have to do it in. They still refuse to allow me to get a repairman who will actually show up, and just keep scheduling me appointments with the same company over and over. I have been 2 months with NO refrigerator as I gave away the perfectly good stainless steel side by side I had when I bought this piece of junk, just because I wanted French doors. If anyone knows of a suit going on about refusal to honor their warranty in a timely manner please let me know!!!!
So how do you get LG to actually respond to the class action suit? I called the number I was given regarding claims but have never gotten a response.
I bought an LG LFX31925SB/00 in May of 2012, and started getting the ice machine error last week, water all over the floor, and googled the problem. This is how I found out about the class action that I most definitely missed out on. I plan on having it repaired by a third party then reporting them to the Better Business Bureau.
I bought many of their items around that time, because they sure look good, but I have had nothing but problems with every one of them. Mold in my clothes washer (going to get a $50 check from a class action suit there), a tv that is failing (three years old), and a dishwasher that had to go back when I bought the fridge (kitchen remodel). It did not get the dishes clean, the water not hot enough.
When I called customer service they told me to turn up the heat on my hot water tank, because their units do not heat the water any hotter. I said why would I turn up the heat for two loads of dishes a week? Luckily home depot let me exchange the unit for a Maytag that has a sanitize cycle that gets the water very hot.
I will never buy LG again, they really make crap.
The freezer section of our 5 year old LG french door refrigerator/freezer stopped working two weeks ago. I had to throw out a freezer full of meat and cooked food. The repairman came out and said it was the compressor. Ordered the parts that were still under warranty, but had to pay $400+ for the labor. He said it would take 24 hours to cool down before safely storing food. It’s been three days, and the cup of water I placed in the freezer is still NOT frozen. Now having to wait two more days for a repairman to come out again. Based all the comments I’ve seen, this will likely not fix the problem. My last refrigerator was almost 20 years old, but we replaced it because we needed a larger one.
LFX31945ST/05 fridge stopped after 3.5 yrs. Repairman said it is a compressor problem. I have to wait 2.5 weeks for parts. What a piece of crap for $2100.00.
I have the same fridge with the same problem … first they changed the main board … the fuse on that blew again and it didn’t even start working … that was the second service call. They ordered a new board and new compressor for the third call. The fourth call they were supposed to install the board and compressor and then told me that I had not a drop of coolant (freon) in the whole fridge. They said they have to replace the coils and hopefully that will fix the leak, but they are not sure. They were supposed to send the coils as an emergency part replacement and install today. Well no parts showed up and no one came. Now they tell me that the parts are on back order until March 28. I am NOT HAPPY ….
As I said I have the same fridge, same age, same problem. Make sure you have coolant. I will be a month without a fridge and I am definitely not happy. I wonder if there is another class action suit available …. Anyone know ???
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Same here! After 4 years it stop cooling. Repairman said it was compressor “fixed it”. Kept malfunction and had to make 5 additional visits to tell me its the same problem. Just two days ago it broke down and now he says its a hose and it would cost more to fix. Its so frustrating. Never getting an LG , worthless crap!
I have one of these crazy refrigerators. Had a new fan motor installed three weeks ago. Night before last I was awoken from a dead sleep after an exhausting week to a terrible noise. It was the damn frig motor again. I can’t hear myself think. What recourse do I have. K cannot keep doing this. My warranty is up in a few weeks. Then what?
2/19/17: And so it begins….We purchased this fridge at Home Depot for about $2300 in late November 2015. Had it delivered to our new residential construction about 6 months after purchase. Started using it in August 2016 when we moved in. It’s now the 3rd week in February 2017 and the freezer just failed. Thawed our food and now I can’t get the temp to go below 20 degrees even though the digital readout shows -1. Ice makers quit also. Contacted LG customer service who advised 3-5 days just to have a tech come look at it. Now it’s 2/22/17 and the fridge is now dying. Won’t cool below 45 degrees even though it’s set at 33. No help from customer service except to wait for repair. Spoke to a couple repair facilities in our area and they advised that they don’t do LG warranty repairs because LG fails to reimburse them. Family of 6 with no cold food in the house and no repair timeline. Would love to send this unit right back to LG and get a refund. Isn’t there a lemon law on appliances?
Me and my wife purchased the LFX25974ST a little over 2 years ago and have had to have the compressor replaced 3 times now and they just replaced it last week and it went down again yesterday. It leaks water all over the place everytime this happens and the food spoils. We have lost over 1000 dollars in food and we paid over 2k for this fridge. This is pretty sad. I will never purchase an LG product again. I want my money back.
I have an LG LFX31945ST /02 refrigerator that was purchased in 2013 and has been nothing but problems. Wasted food, water on the floor and error code 1F constantly.
Please help.
We are having the same problem. Model not even recognized now. I have to wait 2+ weeks for replacement parts. I am reporting to consumer board. My Samsung washer exploded last July.
And many of you have just agreed to tolerate the defects my manually defrosting your frost free refrigerators every 3-4 months to get the noise to stop. You should not have to do this. These models are not supposed to make consumers to have to bend their lives to accommodate a crappy design. Do not accept the status quo, especially if you have tried many times to repair it. You will eventually get a Freon leak as the massive ice accumulation on the back will harm your coils.
Caryn, I think freon might be leaking into my ice cubes. Is that possible? Into the ice maker?
Caryn I am interested in finding out more about filing a suit! I have to replace everything in my refrigerator after it stopped cooling. LFXST31925ST Same model number. We asked several repair men no one works on LG refrigerators…. please let me know what I need to do!