Australia’s competition watchdog is taking fitness tracker giant Fitbit to court alleging the company misled customers in its refusal to provide refunds or replace faulty devices.
The Google-owned company is alleged to have told customers between May 2020 and February 2022 that they would not be entitled to a refund unless they returned a faulty product within 45 days of purchase or shipment.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has also alleged that Fitbit informed customers that after a faulty Fitbit device had been replaced once, they were not entitled to a second replacement if it was outside of Fitbit’s two-year “limited warranty period” for the original device.
As part of the federal court case, the ACCC has collected 58 examples of consumers who were allegedly misled by Fitbit over their rights under Australian Consumer Law.
One customer, who had technical issues with his device and was told by the company there was no timeline on when the issues would be resolved, was allegedly informed by Fitbit that he did not qualify for a refund because he did not seek to return it within 45 days of purchase, and the purchase was not made from Fitbit online directly.
The ACCC said these are not requirements under consumer law for a refund or replacement for a faulty device.
Gina Cass-Gottlieb, chair of the ACCC, told Guardian Australia that global manufacturers must factor in Australian consumer rights.
“Global manufacturers are very focused on their own warranties and contractually, that’s of course important, but it is not the exclusive set of remedies that Australian consumers have,” she said.
“Australian consumers have these additional automatic remedies under the consumer law and they can’t be excluded by contract.”
Gottlieb said she hoped there would be greater focus from global manufacturers to train support staff to understand the additional rights under Australian law.
The ACCC is seeking penalties, injunctions and a compliance program in the case against Fitbit, which will need to be served in the US, where Fitbit is located.
A spokesperson for Fitbit said the company was reviewing the allegations and did not have any further comments.
The regulator does not allege Fitbit is in breach of its 2018 undertaking where the company extended its manufacturer’s warranty from one year to two for Australian consumers.
