Mercedes-Benz class action lawsuit overview:
- Who: Plaintiffs Gabriel Lahijani and Karendeep Bath are suing Mercedes-Benz USA LLC.
- Why: The plaintiffs say they were burned by the raised metallic AMG logo badges on the seats of their vehicles.
- Where: The Mercedes-Benz class action lawsuit was filed in California federal court.
Two Mercedes-Benz drivers are suing the automaker over allegations the seats in some vehicles have raised metallic AMG logo badges that heat up in the sun and burn drivers and passengers.
Plaintiffs Gabriel Lahijani and Karendeep Bath filed the class action lawsuit against Mercedes-Benz USA on Aug. 5 in California federal court.
According to the class action lawsuit, the metallic AMG logos are positioned on the driver and front-passenger seats in certain Mercedes-AMG vehicles and are “in an area reasonably expected to contact an occupant’s upper back, neck or shoulder.”
“When an affected vehicle is parked in the California sun — an ordinary and foreseeable condition — the badge can become hot enough to cause a thermal burn upon brief contact with exposed skin,” the plaintiffs say in the lawsuit. “No adequate warning of this hazard appears on the badge, or in the vehicle documentation provided to plaintiffs.”
Lahijani and Bath are looking to represent a class of all Californians who purchased or leased a vehicle featuring the logo and are seeking unspecified damages.
Plaintiffs burned by Mercedes-Benz seat logos in separate incidents
Lahijani, who lives in Los Angeles, says his burn happened early this year. After parking his leased, new 2026 Mercedes-AMG E-Class vehicle in the sun, he got in the driver’s seat to head to the gym, according to the lawsuit.
Lahijani says he was wearing a tank top, and his left upper back briefly made contact with the logo, causing “immediate severe pain and a burn visibly bearing the distinctive AMG design.” He claims he went to urgent care and was diagnosed with a second-degree burn.
Six weeks after Lahijani’s incident, Bath had a similar incident, the lawsuit alleges. Bath, who lives in Chatsworth, California, says she parked her Mercedes-AMG vehicle on a street in Los Angeles. When she returned to the vehicle in a sleeveless top, her shoulder made contact with the logo on the driver’s seat, burning her, she says.
“She did not initially realize she had been burned; over the following days, a mark in the shape of the AMG logo darkened and became visible on her skin, consistent with a thermal contact burn,” the class action lawsuit states.
The plaintiffs say that neither of them had misused their vehicles. “Parking an automobile in the sun and wearing clothing that leaves the shoulder exposed while entering it on a warm Los Angeles day are ordinary and foreseeable,” they say.
They say Mercedes is to blame for their injuries, since the company “placed into the stream of commerce vehicles containing a raised metallic emblem in an occupant-contact zone without an adequate thermal safeguard, warning or disclosure.”
The plaintiffs allege design defect and failure to warn, negligence, breach of implied warranty of merchantability under California’s Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, violations of the state Consumers Legal Remedies Act and Unfair Competition Law and fraudulent non-disclosure.
Meanwhile, a federal judge recently dismissed a class action lawsuit alleging Mercedes-Benz vehicles are equipped with defective panoramic sunroofs that can shatter under normal driving conditions.
What do you think of the allegations made in this Mercedes-Benz class action lawsuit? Let us know in the comments.
The plaintiffs are represented by Brandon S. Younesi of Justice Shield Law P.C.
The Mercedes-Benz class action lawsuit is Lahijani, et al. v. Mercedes-Benz USA LLC, Case No. 2:26-cv-08680, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
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