Visitors crowd TCL's booth at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin on Sept. 6. Korea Times photo by Nam Hyun-woo
Visitors crowd TCL's booth at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin on Sept. 6. Korea Times photo by Nam Hyun-woo
By Nam Hyun-woo
Chinese TV giants TCL and Hisense faced class action lawsuits in the United States for alleged “false advertising” of their quantum dot LED (QLED) TVs following a controversy in Korea that their TVs lacked the key elements required for quantum dot (QD) technologies.
According to a recent complaint filed with the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Riverside, Stephan Herrick, a resident of Fontana, California, sued TCL North America for violating the false advertising law and a number of other related laws on behalf of “all others similarly situated.”
According to the complaint, Herrick purchased TCL’s 55Q651G QD TV through THE online shopping platform Amazon in July last year after reading reviews about the TV. He claimed that he purchased the model as it was advertised as QLED, but he and other class members “would not have bought the TCL QLED televisions” if they “knew about the QLED deficiency at the time of purchase.”
In the complaint, Herrick did not clarify when he learned about the deficiency but cited news reports in September, including that of The Korea Times, about a Korean panel component manufacturer’s test on TCL televisions.
The manufacturer, Hansol Chemical, commissioned tests of three TCL QD televisions — the C655, C655 Pro and the C755 — to global testing and certification agencies SGS and Intertek and found that the TVs lacked key elements required for QD technology, such as indium or cadmium.
Regarding the test results, Hansol Chemical filed a complaint with Korea’s Fair Trade Commission, claiming that TCL violated the Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising.
Following the reports, TCL refuted them by releasing its own test results of materials supplied by its vendors, showing that its TVs are using QD films containing 4 mg per kilogram of cadmium, which TV industry officials here said is “too minimal an amount to achieve QD performance.”
“This action arises from TCL’s concealment of the technical specifications and display performance of its QLED televisions, and its related false advertising that certain of its QLED televisions, while advertised as having QLED technology, do not actually contain QLED technology or, if QLED technology is present, it is present in such minimal amounts that it does not meaningfully contribute to the performance or display output of the television,” the complaint reads.
Visitors crowd Hisense's booth at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin on Sept. 6. Korea Times photo by Nam Hyun-woo
Visitors crowd Hisense's booth at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin on Sept. 6. Korea Times photo by Nam Hyun-woo
Similarly, Hisense USA also faced a class action complaint filed by Robert Macioce, a resident of New York.
In the complaint filed with the New York District Court on Feb. 25, the plaintiff alleged that Hisense falsely advertised its QLED TVs, even though the televisions “may not actually have” QD technologies or had a negligible amount of materials that would help achieve QD performances.
Macioce did not specify which Hisense TV he bought in the complaint but noted that he purchased it on Nov. 23 through electronics retailer Best Buy’s website.
“Hisense markets various models of its televisions in this manner, claiming that they contain quantum dot technology,” the complaint reads, citing Hisense’s QD5, QD6, QD65, QD7, U7 and U7N TV models.
“However, upon information and belief, none of these television models contain QLED or QD technology, or the QLED or QD technology is negligible such that the QLED technology fails to provide a meaningful improvement in performance or the advertised benefits.”
Macioce added that Hisense on its website claims that its QLED TVs will “dramatically increase the color space and improve color saturation” and that the QLED technology will allow one to “see color like you’ve never seen it before,” but such statements are “untrue and misleading” and consumers cannot “readily verify whether a TV actually has QD technology, especially prior to purchase.”