If you were wondering why have your electronics retailers stopped stocking the Fitbit Force fitness band, you probably haven’t been following the news. Earlier this year, Fitbit Force users complained that the device caused them skin irritations.
After a little bit of back and forth, Fitbit decided the best course is to perform a product recall and work with a government agency to determine what was the issue. It seemed like standard procedure, but it seems that some people felt that Fitbit were misleading in their actions which has since led to a San Diego law firm filing a lawsuit against the company.
According to the lawsuit, they are asking that Fitbit notify and provide full refunds to everyone who might have bought the Fitbit Force in California. The law firm is hoping to turn this into a class action lawsuit.
In fact the law firm goes as far as calling the Fitbit Force a “dangerous, defective product causing skin burns, blisters, open wounds, skin cracking, peeling, and tissue and nerve damage, among other injuries.” To be honest we’re not sure what the issue is here since Fitbit had performed all of the above voluntarily and even before the lawsuit was filed against them.
In a statement that the company had issued in response to the lawsuit, “Based on our initial review of the lawsuit, the complaint asks for a recall of Force and a refund to consumers. Fitbit took initiative long before this complaint was filed, publicly offered refunds, and worked closely with the CPSC on its voluntary recall program. We strongly disagree with the statements about the product and the company.”
It is unclear how this will end for Fitbit or for the law firm but safe to say that these are problems that Fitbit definitely does not need now, especially in the face of stiff competition from the likes of Nike, Jawbone, Samsung, LG, and Sony in the wearable tech market at the moment.
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