False Advertising? Class Action Claims Apple Watch Cannot Accurately Gauge Blood Oxygen Levels of Users with Darker Skin Tones [DISMISSED]
Last Updated on August 31, 2023
Morales v. Apple, Inc.
Filed: December 24, 2022 ◆§ 1:22-cv-10872
Apple faces a class action alleging the Apple Watch is misleadingly advertised as able to accurately measure blood oxygen levels regardless of the user’s skin tone.
New York
August 31, 2023 – Apple Watch Blood Oxygen Level Reading Class Action Dismissed
The proposed class action detailed on this page was dismissed with prejudice on August 29, 2023 by U.S. Judge Jed S. Rakoff, who found that the plaintiff’s claims were, on the whole, too vague to survive.
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In a 14-page opinion and order, Judge Rakoff sided with Apple in finding that the plaintiff’s first amended complaint failed to adequately allege that the tech giant affirmatively misrepresented that the Apple Watch is unable to accurately measure blood oxygen levels of users with darker skin tones. In particular, the judge wrote that the plaintiff’s complaint “does not allege any specific misstatements or misleading practices” on the part of Apple.
“This is particularly telling given that the [first amended complaint] was filed only after [Apple] moved to dismiss on similar grounds the original Complaint,” Judge Rakoff noted.
The judge admonished the plaintiff’s first amended complaint as “littered with conclusory allegations” that Apple misrepresented the Apple Watch “without describing or specifying exactly what those misrepresentations were or where those misrepresentations were made.” The closest the plaintiff came to specificity, Judge Rakoff said, was his claim that Apple’s representations “affirmed and promised that it did not incorporate biases and defects of pulse oximetry with respect to persons of darker skin tone.”
Judge Rakoff nevertheless found that this was “still insufficient” since the allegation does not specify “what the exact representations were or where such representations were made.”
“These conclusory allegations are, on the whole, so unspecific that they fail to give defendant notice of which statements, acts, or practices are the basis for the plaintiff’s claim,” the order reads.
Judge Rakoff found that the plaintiff’s allegations of fraud, breach of express warranty and unjust enrichment on the part of Apple were also insufficient, such that granting the consumer leave to amend the case again would be “futile.”
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Apple Inc. faces a proposed class action that alleges the Apple Watch is misleadingly advertised as able to accurately measure blood oxygen levels regardless of the user’s skin tone.
Want to stay in the loop on class actions that matter to you? Sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.
According to the eight-page lawsuit, the Apple Watch, which purports to assess blood oxygen levels from the wearer’s wrist, is plagued by the same inherent defects of its more traditional predecessors—fingertip oximeters that reported significantly inaccurate readings when used by people with darker skin, the suit says.
The case charges that the tech giant understood that consumers sought a functional device regardless of user ethnicity and skin color and falsely marketed its Apple Watches to meet this desire without acknowledging “the failings of pulse oximetry in general with respect to persons of color.”
Since the invention of traditional fingertip oximeters (tools to gauge blood oxygen levels from a wearer’s finger), reports have surfaced of their inaccuracies when used by people with darker skin tones, the suit explains.
The complaint contends that the consequences of this technical bias are significant: “[s]ince health care recommendations are based on readings of their blood oxygen levels, white patients are more able to obtain care than those with darker skin when faced with equally low blood oxygenation.”
Per the filing, wrist-worn equipment like the Apple Watch may measure heart rate correctly, but the lawsuit claims that blood oxygen levels taken from the wrist can result in “over 90% of readings being unusable.”
The case says that the plaintiff, a resident of New York, believed the Apple Watch would measure his blood oxygen levels despite the “biases and defects” of traditional fingertip oximeters—in other words, that the Apple Watch measurements would not be affected by his skin tone.
The defendant’s false representations regarding the Apple Watch allow the company to sell the products at a premium price of $400, the suit claims. The complaint argues that consumers like the plaintiff would not have paid as much or purchased the device at all had they known the Apple Watch possessed the same defect as other technology that measures blood oxygen levels.
The lawsuit looks to represent anyone residing in New York, North Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Alaska, Iowa, Mississippi, Arkansas, North Carolina and Utah who purchased an Apple Watch during the statute of limitations.
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