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Apple hit with class action lawsuit over cracked Apple Watch screens injuring users

Apple is facing a new class action lawsuit over an alleged design flaw in the Apple Watch Series 6. As reported by Bloomberg, the proposed class action lawsuit alleges that the Apple Watch Series 6 suffers from a design flaw that makes the screen “prone to breaking or detaching” and exposing “razor-sharp edges.”

The customers behind the class action lawsuit say that Apple did not provide enough room inside the Apple Watch Series 6’s design to account for potential swelling of the battery. As a result, if the battery does slightly swell, the display can detach, crack, or shatter.

When the display separates from the Apple Watch casing, the sharp edges can lead to injury. According to the plaintiffs, this means the Apple Watch Series 6 “poses a material and unreasonable safety hazard to consumers.”

“The detached, shattered, or cracked screens are a material and unreasonably dangerous safety hazard,” the customers said in the complaint, filed Thursday in federal court in Oakland, California.

The proposed class-action lawsuit was filed by four Apple Watch customers. Included in the complaint is a photo of a deep slash on the arm of one of the customers, purportedly caused when her Series 3 Apple Watch screen detached.

Additionally, the lawsuit says that this flaw was present in previous Apple Watch models, including the Apple Watch Series 3. As such, Apple violated “various consumer protection laws” when it continued releasing Apple Watch models with this flaw.

This lawsuit is similar to one that was filed against Apple in 2018. That lawsuit, however, was tossed out by a federal judge who said that the “plaintiff failed to identify a specific defect.” That is likely why this lawsuit is explicitly linking the swelling battery to the defect.

The class action lawsuit “seeks to represent anyone who bought any model of the Apple Watch starting with the first generation in 2015, and continuing until last year.” The Apple Watch Series 7 is not yet included.

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Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com

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