Overview
Plaintiffs claim that Siemens’ Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters (AFCI), a type of circuit breaker, are defective and Siemens misrepresents and omits information with respect to the quality of those AFCIs.
Important Rulings
- On June 24, 2022, Judge Mark H. Cohen of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia appointed Cohen Milstein as Interim Co-Lead Counsel in this consumer protection false advertising and product defect class action.
- On August 1, 2023, the Court named Eric Kafka to assume the role of Co-Lead Counsel.
- On February 2, 2024, the Court denied in part Siemens’ motion to dismiss Plaintiffs’ complaint.
Case Background
Siemens is one of several companies that design and manufacture AFCI breakers. Plaintiffs claim that Siemens’ AFCIs fail to adequately distinguish between harmless and dangerous electrical arcs. As a result, Siemens’ defective AFCI breakers suffer from nuisance tripping. Specifically, Plaintiffs claim that Siemens has failed to update its AFCIs to identify and ignore harmless arcing signatures caused by common appliances. Rather, Siemens AFCIs trip in the presence of common appliances, even though they do not pose a risk, leading to excessive and frequent nuisance tripping.
Plaintiffs contend that had Siemens disclosed that its AFCIs experience frequent and unnecessary nuisance tripping, they would not have purchased, installed and/or exhausted other related resources to install Siemens’ breakers homes and/or businesses.