Sony Mobile USA has decided to settle on alleged claims that some of its Xperia smartphones and tablets were “deceptively advertised as waterproof”. The class action lawsuit opens up Xperia owners based in the USA to receive a partial refund on their device, if it suffered water damage whilst in warranty and refused repair.
The lawsuit was initially filed by Logan Landes and James Goddard, back in January 2016, alleging that certain Sony Mobile devices misrepresented as “waterproof,” but are, in fact, “not waterproof and are not designed for or capable of ordinary underwater use.”
They went further, saying that “Sony exploited certain international water resistance ratings in order to launch a deceptive marketing campaign promoting the Devices” and cite numerous advertisements. This is something we covered a couple of years ago now, when Sony u-turned on a lot of its marketing material, highlighting that its devices were no longer water proof.
Sony says it has done no wrong and denies that its Xperia devices are defective, but it will settle the class action before matters are decided by the court. As a result, if your Sony Xperia phone suffered water-related damage, which Sony refused to fix under warranty, then you can claim a 50% refund of the device’s recommended retail price at launch.
Sony is also offering an automatic warranty extension for 12 months if your phone is still in warranty, and by 6 months for out-of-warranty devices.
While this class action is only available to those in the United States, it would be interesting to know what kind of liability Sony would face if this was opened to all customers worldwide. The US market for Sony Xperia devices has always been small, which is why the company perhaps feels it can afford to settle in this case. If you’ve suffered water damage from using an IP rated Xperia device in the past, let us know in the comments below.
If you reside in the USA and own one of the phones below, then you can make a claim by following this link. The deadline to submit claims is 30 January 2018.
Sony Xperia devices included in settlement
Xperia M2 Aqua
Xperia M4 Aqua
Xperia ZR
Xperia Z Ultra
Xperia Z1
Xperia Z1 Compact
Xperia Z1s (T-Mobile)
Xperia Z2
Xperia Z3
Xperia Z3 Compact
Xperia Z3 (T-Mobile)
Xperia Z3v (Verizon)
Xperia Z3 Dual
Xperia Z3+
Xperia Z3+ Dual
Xperia Z5
Xperia Z5 CompactXperia Z2 Tablet (Wi-Fi)
Xperia Z2 Tablet (LTE)
Xperia Z2 Tablet (Verizon LTE)
Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact (Wi-Fi)
Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact (LTE)
Xperia Z4 Tablet (Wi-Fi)
Xperia Z4 Tablet (LTE)
Via Phone Arena.
Thanks Diogo and KF!