NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - Nespresso coffee drinkers with fully functioning machines can't sue the company over the terms of the warranty on them.
New York federal judge Naomi Reice Buchwald on Sept. 15 tossed a proposed class action brought under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. The plaintiffs complain that the warranty on their Nespresso Vertuo coffee makers can become void if they don't use Nespresso's coffee capsules in them.
The suit says they would like to use cheaper third-party capsules but the warranty prevents them from doing so. That wasn't enough to sustain a class action, Judge Buchwald found.
"At no point in their Second Amended Complaint do plaintiffs assert that their machines malfunctioned or that they were denied coverage under the warranty," the ruling says.
"Moreover, there are no allegations that they planned to use the warranty in the future or planned to modify the machine in any way that would void the warranty.
"(A)ny cheaper third-party capsules were not compatible with the machine and would have required some form of modification to the machine itself in order to be operable."
The suit, filed by attorneys at Bursor & Fisher on behalf of three plaintiffs - Abigail Shaughnessy, Aditya Pathak and Katherine Alegre - cited Federal Trade Commission guidance on warranties that "state or imply that a consumer must buy or use an item or service from a particular company to keep their warranty coverage."
A claim for economic harm - that the plaintiffs would have paid less for the machine or not purchase it at all had they known the hurdles to using other coffee capsules - failed.
"A plaintiff alleging that he would not have purchased the product or would have paid less in a warranty case does not experience a concrete economic injury unless the warranty was voided," the ruling says.