Class Actions

Bluetooth Headset Manufacturers Faced Class Action Lawsuits For Concealing Bluetooth-Related Hearing Loss Potential and a Settlement Has Been Reached

Class action lawsuits were filed against manufacturers, Motorola, Inc., Jabra, and Plantronics in Federal Courts across the country, claiming that the Bluetooth Headset makers had misrepresented their product, failed to inform consumers of the hearing loss which could be caused by the product, and to take adequate steps to prevent hearing loss among Bluetooth users.

Proudly, a settlement of the class action was approved and judgment was entered on September 25, 2009. Thanks to the diligence, hard work and leadership of attorney, Melissa Harnett, along with the staff of Wasserman, Comden, Casselman & Esensten, L.L.P., and with counsel for the related cases, the manufacturers of the Bluetooth Headsets agreed to place warning labels on their product manuals and to add acoustic safety information to their websites. They also agreed to donate $100,000.00 to non-profit organizations that focus on preventing hearing loss.

A history of the lawsuits is as follows:

The first suit (Case No. 2:06-CV-05182) was filed on June 30, 2006, by Wasserman, Comden, Casselman & Esensten, L.L.P., on behalf of Michael Jones and Christopher Freeman and a putative class of California consumers who had purchased a Motorola Bluetooth headset. On Oct. 16, 2006, a nationwide class action was filed in Illinois (Case No. 06CV5586), on behalf of Evan Nass and all other Bluetooth users. Similar lawsuits were filed in other states and against the other two leading manufacturers of Bluetooth Headsets, Jabra and Plantronics.

The lawsuits charged that Bluetooth Headsets, including those manufactured by Motorola, Jabra and Plantronics, were sold with representations that they could be used for extensive time periods and that nowhere on the packaging materials or in the sales literature were warnings included regarding noise induced hearing loss (NIHL), a condition with no cure or treatment, that the headsets were likely to cause if used for extended time periods.

Sound pressure is measured in decibels (dB). The average person can hear sounds at about 0 dB, the level of rustling leaves. A conversation between two people is typically 60 dB. According to Dangerous Decibels, a nonprofit public health partnership for the prevention of NIHL, a dangerous sound is 85 dB and above.

"The American Speech-Hearing-Language Association recently included the Motorola's H700 Bluetooth in a safety test, comparing it to federal standards for controlling occupational noise exposure," says Melissa Harnett. "At full volume the headset tested from 82 - 106 dB. Can you imagine what that can do to the hearing of the average Bluetooth user who is using his headset for an extended period of time every day and has no clue that he is 'poisoning' his hearing with lethal doses of sound?"

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), says that exposure to sound averaging 85 dB for more than eight hours a day by itself presents a risk of hearing loss. According to NIOSH, each three decibel volume increase reduces the safety exposure time by half, which reflects the logarithmic nature of the decibel scale. For example, if a headset is set to provide a sound of 91 dB, noise induced hearing loss statistically develops if the headset is used for more than two hours a day. At 94 dB, NIHL statistically develops if the headset is used for more than one hour a day. At 102 dB, irreversible damage statistically develops if the headset is used for more than seven-and-a-half MINUTES per day.

"The headsets are designed to only produce sound in one ear. When the noise around the Bluetooth user increases, he turns the volume up," says Harnett. "But the headsets don't give the user any way of determining the decibel levels being emitted. It's not like a car, where the speedometer tells you how fast you are going so you can slow down if you're exceeding the speed limit. A warning does little good if people have no way to measure when they are reaching the danger zone."

Of the roughly 40 million Americans who suffer from hearing loss, it is estimated that the hearing loss of 10 million of them can be attributed to NIHL. NIHL can be caused by a one-time exposure to a loud sound or by repeated exposure to sounds at various loudness levels over an extended period of time, which damage the microscopic hair cells found inside the ear's cochlea. If enough of the hair cell's hair-like stereocilia are damaged or broken, hearing loss results. There is no treatment, no medicine, no surgery, and no device that can correct hearing that has been damaged by noise.

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