Apple has been served with a $5 million class-action lawsuit in California, which claims that the company has sold millions of smartwatches with defective screens, since its original Apple Watch in 2015, through to the Series 3 Apple Watch, which launched in 2017.
The claim reads, “The Watches all contain the same defect and/or flaw, which causes the screens on the Watches to crack, shatter, or detach from the body of the Watch (the “Defect”), through no fault of the wearer, oftentimes only days or weeks after purchase.”
The plaintiff also puts it to the court that Apple was aware of these defects, actively concealed them from the public and refused to honour warranty claims from users seeking repairs.
Analyst Comment
Apple previously acknowledged an issue in its original, Series 2 and Series 3 Apple Watch lines, which was known to cause the devices’ back casings to detach. At the time, the company extended warranty periods for affected devices to three years.
With this in mind, it’s odd to hear that Apple has refused to help users whose screens have detached, considering that this could also well be the upshot of a swollen battery. (AF)
