LG Blu-Ray Players Have Outdated Software, Class Action Lawsuit Says

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Customers who purchased Blu-ray disc players from LG Electronic asked a Wisconsin federal judge Thursday to certify a class action lawsuit alleging that its Blu-Ray players were sold with obsolete and discontinued software.

Wisconsin resident Scott Martin filed the LG Blu-ray class action lawsuit on Feb. 8 against LG Electronics USA Inc., Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc. and Cyberlink.com Corp., claiming that the faulty software in LG’s Blu-ray disc players had expired after a certain date, leaving them inoperable with discs that were released not long after the disc players were purchased.

“By bundling obsolete software with their [Blu-ray disc] players, defendants forced consumers to buy software upgrades, or to pay money or search for alternative software, and to incur installation hassle, computer damages, and other losses, in order to make reasonable use of the purchase,” the LG Blu-ray class action lawsuit states.

Martin alleges that the three companies had a “planned obsolescence scheme,” in which they conspired together so that the software would become obsolete at a certain point.

He believes it was done through agreements reached through trade groups they were all members of, “setting forth terms for copyright protection and require periodic updating of software to match evolving content protection technology,” the LG class action lawsuit states.

“Defendants thus know of and/or participate in establishing and maintaining a system in which [Blu-ray disc] players’ device key sets periodically expire, requiring new software to play any [Blu-ray disc] programmed recognize that expiration,” the class action further explains.

Martin purchased an LG Super Multi Blu-ray disc player in February 2011 for $79.99 that came with CyberLink’s PowerDV 8 software that was put on an optical disc for installation made by Hitachi.

The Wisconsin man says there was no notice that came with the LG Blu-ray player saying that the software was set to expire. In October 2011, Martin sat down to watch a newly released and widely distributed movie on Blu-ray disc that was sent to him by Netflix, but his disc player would not play the movie.

“Instead, when plaintiff tried to use the [Blu-ray disc] player, and with no prior notice, plaintiff’s viewing screen presented a message indicating that he had to buy a PowerDVD software ‘upgrade’ in order to watch the movie,” the class action lawsuit says.

The cost of the upgrade needed so that his disc player would play his movie “was roughly the same as the price [he] paid” for the player. In the end, he was not able to watch his movie because he was not willing to pay for the upgrade.

Martin believes his class action lawsuit meets the commonality requirement necessary for class certification including the alleged violations of fraud, the Wisconsin Deceptive Trade Practice Act, and whether the electronics companies worked together to make the software become obsolete.

He is seeking to represent all consumers nationwide who purchased LG, LGUS, and/or HLDS Blu-ray disc players bundled with discontinued CyberLink software at any time between Feb. 8, 2008 and the date that Class certification is granted.

In December 2013, a federal judge granted final approval to a class action settlement over allegations that LG concealed a defect in its Blu-ray home theater systems.

The LG Blu-Ray Player Class Action Lawsuit is Scott Martin v. LG Electronics USA Inc., et al., Case No. 3:14-cv-00083, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

The plaintiff is represented by Ilan Chorowsky and Frank Jablonski of Progressive Law Group LLC.