Samsung hit with lawsuits as battery woes continue

Seoul: As the Note 7 fiasco had begun dying down, Samsung is again facing multiple lawsuits following reports that its other models too are plagued with battery issues, media reports said. The other smartphone models that reportedly face similar issues include the Galaxy S6, S7 Edge and Note 5. Earlier this month, Dale Holzworth from Massachusetts filed a class action lawsuit that claimed the Galaxy S7 Edge he purchased last year burst into flames while it sat charging in his son’s bedroom, a report in DailyMail reported on Thursday. According to the report, cases in three US states have claimed that Samsung was aware of the battery issues and fire hazards for years, but opted not to inform its customers. Another lawsuit filed by Claire Gilligan in New York noted that the other smartphones use similar or identical batteries to those used in the Note 7. Almost 112 Galaxy Note 7 devices caught fire worldwide within a month of the smartphone’s launch in August last year, prompting Samsung to recall all the 2.5 million products after five months of its launch. “Samsung manufactures and sells smartphones which pose a threat to the safety of consumers,” reads the Samsung class action complaint. Plaintiffs have demanded that “users with the older models should be provided with the same refund and exchange programme set for the Note 7”. They alleged that Samsung recalled the Note 7 while leaving other dangerous products in the marketplace as the problem was not limited to a single product only. “Samsung’s team responsible for designing the system further stated that due to the spatial limits of smartphones, the cooling system’s cooling capacity alone is not enough to cool the device,” the report quoted a plaintiff as saying. IANS