Florida court dismisses class-action lawsuit against Dometic
A group of Dometic refrigerator customers alleged that the products corrode and break.
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A Florida district court yesterday dismissed a class-action lawsuit against Dometic, an RV refrigerator and cooler manufacturer, that alleged that certain products corrode, leak gas, and pose a fire risk.
Dometic is a popular brand among RVers because the fridges hook up to a vehicle’s gas absorption. The brand also makes electric-powered coolers, appealing to overlanders, and vanlifers.
Read more: The paper-thin line between RV and core outdoor consumers
Eighteen individuals led the charge against the Swedish company, not based on fires or damage to property, but for paying a “premium price that they otherwise would not have paid” had they known about the defect. Models named in the lawsuit are all fridges, not coolers. They cost anywhere from $500 to more than $4,000, and are typically bought through RV dealers and makers.
Ultimately, the Court for the Southern District of Florida ruled that the allegations of a “common defect” were not susceptible to class-wide treatment, especially since nobody had suffered injuries.
“I am pleased to see the ruling to dismiss the class action lawsuit. We have all along remained firm in the position that the allegations in the consolidated case were without merit,” Dometic President and CEO Juan Vargues said in a news release.
Dometic’s lawyers argued that “all refrigerators will eventually leak within their useful life,” meaning that some “refrigerators will likely last their full useful life.”
This is the second time that a court has rejected class-wide allegations against Dometic for its gas-absorption refrigerators. In 2017, a similar suit also in Florida was dismissed because individuals didn’t establish the existence of a defect.
