Google-owned Fitbit to pay $12.2 million after consumers were burned by smartwatches
CBSN
More than two years after recalling about 1.7 million Ionic smartwatches sold globally, Google-owned Fitbit will pay a $12.2 million penalty for failing to alert consumers that the products can overheat and cause burns, federal regulators said Thursday.
Fitbit received numerous reports of the lithium-ion batteries in the watches overheating during 2018, 2019 and continuing into 2020, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). In early 2020, Fitbit made an update to address the defect, but continued to hear from people suffering burns and did not report the issue to regulators as legally required.
"While health-conscious people wore Fitbit Ionic smartwatches to track their fitness, they had no idea that the watches were putting their safety at risk. They didn't know about the hazard because Fitbit said nothing," CPSC Commissioner Rich Trumka Jr. said Thursday in a statement.
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