There’s been a new development in an ongoing class-action lawsuit against Huawei and Google, stemming from an investigation last year with regard to the Nexus 6P handset. Specifically, Judge Beth Labson Freeman, presiding over the case for the U.S. District Court of Northern California San Jose Division, issued a ruling to deny motions from the defendants to dismiss the case. Furthermore, Freeman moved to dismiss the two companies’ claims that the cases don’t warrant a class-action suit. That means that both companies’ cases will be proceeding. However, motions were granted in terms of the companies’ request to dismiss some of the claims of the suit, which include some fraud or fraud-based, warranty, and unjust enrichment claims. That’s likely to prove a major victory for the both Google and Huawei but the two will still face other claims falling under similar categories.
For those who may not recall, this lawsuit started in April of last year after users of the Google-branded, Huawei-built Nexus 6P began to notice several big problems with the devices. Primarily, complaints came down to early shutoff of devices despite having plenty of battery remaining and boot looping problems. Users went on to claim that Google and Huawei were unresponsive to the issues. Similar problems had led to suits against other companies but it wasn’t immediately clear whether a class-action lawsuit would follow. It now does appear that will happen. Filed in the above-mentioned court under Case No. 17-cv-02185-BLF, the two companies are set to face a different group of claims. Google will be facing claims based on a state consumer protection statute, while Huawei is looking at express and implied warranty claims. Huawei, as the manufacturer, is facing additional claims under the federal Magnusson-Moss statute and California Unfair Competition Law.
Unfortunately, even the dismissed claims could be amended and brought back. In fact, although there’s no guarantee that they won’t simply be dismissed again, the plaintiffs in the case have indicated that is their plan. They will be refiling the dismissed claims on June 8. The stretch of time involved here is not unusual for cases involving large companies with robust law teams. However, it does mean that this case will likely drag on without any resolution and there’s a high likelihood that it won’t be over by the end of this year.