Samsung Hit with Lawsuit Over Energy Labels on Televisions

Samsung has had a bad couple of weeks. First, it was the exploding cell phones and then the exploding washers. Now, the company is under fire for the “Energy Guide” labeling on its televisions.

According to a suit filed in Illinois federal court, Samsung Electronics America is misleading consumers into thinking its televisions are more energy efficient than they actually are. The suit says there are two ways in which the sets lack their advertised energy efficiency.

First, when a person changes the factory-default picture settings, the television will disable its automatic brightness control feature without warning, according to the suit. Second, Samsung advertises that its televisions feature a “motion lighting” setting that dims the set’s brightness or turns off the backlight “during scenes of rapid motion.” The lawsuit claims, however, that this feature was installed not to help customers save money on energy costs, but to get around the Department of Energy’s testing video. This allowed Samsung, the suit alleges, to register their televisions as “using less energy.”

The suit claims that, as a result of this false and misleading marketing, Samsung customers incurred higher electricity costs than they would have expected. In fact, independent lab tests showed that consumers with these televisions will end up paying an additional $100 to $200 in electric costs over a ten-year period, according to the suit.

This lawsuit is looking to cover anyone in the United States who purchased Samsung televisions with these energy-saving features since 2011.