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Apple Watch design & battery are inherently unsafe, claims lawsuit

Lawsuit takes aim at Apple Watch design

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Apple has been hit with a lawsuit claiming that every Apple Watch model ever made has an "unsafe defect" — specifically, the fact that the device doesn't have the internal space to accommodate a swollen battery.

The class action complaint, lodged Thursday in a federal court in California, claims that the Apple Watch has an "undisclosed and unreasonably dangerous safety hazard." The lawsuit names every model produced, from the original Apple Watch to the Apple Watch Series 6.

More specifically, the lawsuit calls out the fact that the Apple Watch allegedly lacks any "thermal or other solution to prevent and/or mitigate the danger of a detached, shattered, or cracked Watch screen resulting from the insufficient space allocated within the device for the rectangular shaped, electromagnetically charged lithium cobalt oxide battery."

The lawsuit claims that the lack of space can cause problems if the battery suddenly swells. Such a scenario could place upward pressure on the screen, causing it to detach from the Apple Watch, shatter, or crack — "exposing its razor-sharp edges" to users.

In other words, the manufacturing defect is not the fact that lithium ion batteries could swell. Instead, the lawsuit takes issue with the fact that there isn't sufficient space within the device, or some other mitigation mechanism, to protect against swelling batteries. One example it gives is a "protective guard to keep [the battery] from contacting the screen face."

"The detached, shattered, or cracked screens are a material and unreasonably dangerous safety hazard," the complaint reads.

More than that, the lawsuit claims that Apple knowingly produced Apple Watch models with this safety detect. It adds that the company denies the existence of it.

The lawsuit names a handful of plaintiffs that had issues with battery swelling on their Apple Watch models. It seeks class action status.

The complaint, which demands a jury trial, seeks damages for the plaintiffs and class members, as well as disclosure of the "defective nature of the Watch," among other prayers for relief.

It's not clear how the case will work around more than two decades of precedent involving batteries, and how they swell inside a mobile device enclosure when operating outside normal parameters when damaged or chemically depleted. Similar cases have been filed regarding iPhone batteries in the past, and none have ended in the filer's favor.



14 Comments

thinkman100000000 3 Years · 87 comments

Another day, another troll suing Apple. At least it's not in Tex-ass where the trolls often (always?) win. 

maltz 13 Years · 507 comments

So the suit boils down to the fact that the screen is made of glass, and broken glass is sharp?  Good luck with that...

pjorlando 10 Years · 30 comments

This is the most stupid thing I have ever heard!

darkvader 15 Years · 1146 comments

maltz said:
So the suit boils down to the fact that the screen is made of glass, and broken glass is sharp?  Good luck with that...

No, that's not what it boils down to at all.

It boils down to the design of the watch not allowing for an expanded battery (which can be anticipated to happen with a certain percentage of batteries of the type used in the Apple Watch) and therefore the battery is breaking the glass and creating a potentially hazardous condition.

I suspect they'll have a hard time if they can't prove actual damages, meaning if the glass didn't cut somebody there isn't an injury.

It absolutely IS a defective design.  If the battery expansion (which, again, can be anticipated) causes damage to the device, it's a problem.  And it's a problem that's affected every portable Apple product for years.  Apple really should have to pay for any damages caused by battery swelling when they designed the product in such a way that a swollen battery can damage other hardware.  There's an easy fix Apple could have implemented - batteries that are easily changeable by the user could implement a locking catch system that would automatically unlock and release if a battery swells enough that it could cause damage.  There's no reason for Apple not to do that other than their idiotic thin fetish.

williamlondon 14 Years · 1426 comments

darkvader said:

It absolutely IS a defective design.

When you launch your website "I hate all things Apple, just because" let everyone here know so they can dump AI and join you there.