After two controversial months on the market, Samsung, the world’s largest phone manufacturer, has decided to stop production on the Galaxy Note 7. Samsung received over 90 complaints that the smartphone was prone to overheating or catching on fire during the brief time it was available for purchase.

The Galaxy Note 7 was supposed to be one of the most advanced smartphones ever released when it became available for sale on August 19, 2016. Quickly, however, complaints about the device began to trickle in. Numerous customers reported that their phone’s batteries would overheat, with nearly 30 customers reporting having experienced burns, and 55 suffering some amount of property damage. In one incident, a man’s heavily-modified Jeep Cherokee was totaled when a Note 7 charging in the center console burst into flames. The phones became known as a source of potential fire risk, and were banned from being carried during flights on major airlines.

Samsung, facilitated by the Consumer Products Safety Commission, issued a voluntary recall of about a million Note 7 phones sold in the US, and an additional 1.5 million worldwide. Samsung blamed a negligent battery manufacturer, but claimed that it could replace the phones with a non-defective version of the Note 7 for those customers who wished to stick to that phone model. Unfortunately, even among customers who began using the replacement phones, the battery overheating issues persisted. In fact, one Southwest Airlines flight had to be evacuated when a Note 7 began to emit smoke after it was turned off. In response, Samsung has now ceased production on all Note 7 phones and recalled all Note 7 phones sold in the US, with customers left to return the phones either directly to Samsung by mail (albeit in a box lined with heat-resistant materials), or to their mobile carrier directly.

Since the consumer cannot tell whether a product is safe just by looking at it in the store, buyers need to be able to trust that manufacturers have subjected a product to thorough testing to ensure both that the item functions as promised, and that it will not injure the user. When a manufacturer or store sells a product, they are implicitly vouching for the safety of that product. If the product causes a customer physical or economic harm when it malfunctions or fails to work as intended, then the consumer is entitled to compensation for that harm, even if the manufacturer or store didn’t realize that the product was harmful to consumers when it was sold.

If you’ve been injured by a defective or dangerous product in West Virginia, contact the skilled, experienced, and trial-ready Charlottesville personal injury attorneys at Buck, Toscano, and Tereskerz for a consultation on your case, at 434-977-7977.

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