SAN JOSE, Calif. (Legal Newsline) – A group of consumers filed a class action lawsuit against Apple and Samsung alleging that the cellphone manufacturers did not warn consumers of a risk of allegedly excessive radiofrequency radiation exposure in some of their devices.
Andrew Cohen and other plaintiffs filed a class action complaint on Aug. 23 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics America Inc., alleging negligent misrepresentation, breach of warranty, violation of the California Unfair Competition Law, violation of the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act and other counts.
The plaintiffs allege that they are users of the defendants' products, specifically phones that they regularly carry near their bodies. The plaintiffs allege recent testing of the defendants' iPhones and Galaxy phones shows that a user's potential exposure to radiofrequency (RF) radiation exposure is over the recommended exposure limit if the phones are carried in a pants or shirt pocket.
The plaintiffs allege that had they known of the damages and dangers associated with the usage of the defendants' products, they would not have paid as much for the devices or would not have purchased them at all. They also allege they have been damaged and now are at risk of problems associated with RF radiation exposure.
The plaintiffs are seeking a trial by jury, attorneys' fees, costs, just relief. They are represented by Jennie Lee Anderson of Andrus Anderson LLP in San Francisco; Elizabeth A. Fegan and Timothy A. Scott of Fegan Scott LLC in Chicago; J. Barton Goplerud of Shindler, Anderson, Goplerud & Weese PC in West Des Moines, Iowa.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California case number 5:19-CV-05322