Given Samsung’s recent run of troubles — and the fact that said troubles issue from an exploding phone — it was likely just a matter of time before the lawsuits began.
And the time has come, as reports indicate that the company’s U.S. unit is facing a proposed class action lawsuit brought on behalf of three Galaxy Note 7 owners who seek to represent a nationwide class of Samsung owners who were burned by their phones — literally and metaphorically.
This comes as Samsung was forced to pull the phone from the market wholesale last week when it became clear that the battery problem it initially identified as the culprit behind the phone pyrotechnics was quite obviously not the problem — or not the full extent of the problem.
Samsung initially announced the recall of 2.5 million Note 7s in early September — with the full recall in effect, the Note 7 will likely go down in history as one of tech’s more costly failures to launch.
A spokeswoman for Samsung Electronics America declined to comment on the pending litigation.
The complaint, filed on Oct. 16, alleges that the consumers discontinued using the phones after the recall but were asked to wait days or weeks for a replacement phone — which did not stop their phone provider from charging them for the time they did not have a phone.
The case is re: Waudby vs Samsung Electronics America, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, Newark, No. 16-cv-07334-CCC-JBC.