HP pays $425,000 to settle hazardous battery case
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has recently announced that HP will pay $425,000, to settle the claims where they knowingly sold those laptops with hazardous batteries that could overheat or catch fire.
According to the Commission, HP were informed about 22 incidents involving the batteries by September of 2007, but they have failed to report the problem until 10 months later. Among these incidents there were also two where the consumers were reported to get injured.
These lithium-Ion battery packs were shipped in new HP laptops or sold as accessories and spare parts and this was dangerous from the user’s point of view. This defect was capable of overheating the battery, posing fire and even burn hazards.
As soon as the problem was being reported HP and commission recalled about 32,000 lithium-ion battery packs. However during the settlement, HP denied the batteries to pose an unreasonable risk or that they have violated any federal requirements.
The Commission also mentioned that they would like to hear about incidents involving the battery packs and the consumers can report them at the saferproduct, gov website if they have any query.