Belkin Overstates Juice Capacity of Portable Chargers, Class Action Claims

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A proposed class action alleges Belkin International has misrepresented the capacity of its popular portable device chargers.

The 30-page case says that Belkin’s Boost Charge, Pocket Power, Power Pack and Power RockStar power banks, which can be charged and taken on the go, are designed such that their charging capacity is “significantly lower than what’s represented to consumers.” More specifically, the filing claims that each charger’s internal circuit board, which converts the product’s internal charge to a voltage charging devices can accept, uses a “substantial amount of power” on its own, reducing the amount of power available to charge a device.  

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Belkin, a “key player in the power bank market,” has intentionally exploited consumers’ preference for portable chargers that provide more milliampere-hours (mAh)—a unit of measurement for electric power over time—by falsely advertising that its products are capable of providing more mAh than they actually can, the suit claims.

For instance, the plaintiff, an Illinois consumer, purchased a Belkin Pocket Power 10000 portable charger with the belief that it could deliver 10,000 mAh to charge his devices. The product, however, “cannot, and never could, deliver 10,000 mAh,” the suit says, claiming other consumers nationwide have been “similarly deceived.” 

“By deceiving consumers about the Products’ mAh, Belkin is able to sell more of, and charge more for, the Products than it could if they were labeled accurately,” the case states. 

According to the lawsuit, the represented mAh for each charging bank is stated on the packages of the Belkin products at issue. The complaint says that Belkin “draws attention” to each product’s purported mAh and thus warrants that the power banks will have the stated charging capacity. 

Given the power demands of the portable chargers’ internal circuit boards, a power bank “represented as delivering ‘X’ mAh will necessarily deliver less than ‘X’” given that the circuit board itself requires a significant amount of power in order to convert power properly, the lawsuit relays. 

“Because of the process described above, Belkin knows the Products are technologically incapable of delivering the amount of mAh it claims in the product name, in advertising for the Product, and on the Products and their labels/packaging,” the complaint charges. 

According to the lawsuit, the below is a representation of the advertised mAh for the Belkin chargers at issue and their actual mAh, based on what the suit claims are outside lab tests:

The lawsuit looks to cover all consumers in Illinois, Florida, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Washington and Wisconsin who bought a Belkin power bank. 

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