Suit Alleges Samsung Dupes Public About Smartwatch Water-Resistance
Samsung’s advertising and marketing dupes consumers into believing the Galaxy Watch Active2 smartwatch is water-resistant and can stand up to common fitness activities, including swimming, but the product “routinely fails” in only “brief encounters with water,” alleged a complaint Friday…
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in U.S. District Court in Riverside, California, seeking class-action status. San Bernardino County resident Nic Dahlquist bought his Active2 smartwatch from Amazon in June for $172, believing Samsung’s “representations” that the product could be worn while swimming, it said. His use of the device in a pool in January “was consistent with its operating instructions,” it said. “Upon exiting the pool, the device became stuck in a reboot loop.” Dahlquist contacted Samsung, which told him he needed to pay $209 for repairs because he was denied warranty coverage, it said. Samsung’s representations about the product's water-resistance capabilities “are materially false because they do not perform as advertised under normal, real-world conditions and use,” the complaint said. Its ads “mislead consumers by creating the reasonable but false belief” that if the smartwatch gets wet, “it will not sustain any damage,” but the internet is full of complaints about the product’s “inability to withstand water as advertised,” in violation of unfair competition, false advertising and consumer protection laws, said the complaint. Samsung created “internal indicators” to detect when the Active2 smartwatch is exposed to water, and it’s the company’s policy “to deny warranty repair or replacement when this indicator is activated,” it said. “This means buyers are told one thing when they buy the Product, based on the representations, but something else when they need after-sales service or replacement.” The price of repair typically exceeds that of the smartwatch when purchased new, the complaint said. Samsung didn’t comment.