Apple is being sued for $75,000 for gross negligence and fraud.
The Cupertino-based tech giant recently became the target of a lawsuit for the rupturing of an eardrum of a then 12-year-old wearing AirPods when a loud Amber Alert was issued, per a recent Reuters report.
The company has yet to release a statement addressing the lawsuit and the parents of the 12-year-old.
Apple AirPod Incident And Lawsuit Details
According to the complaint of Carlos Gordoa and Ariani Reyes, their then 12-year-old child, who is known as B.G. in the complaint, received an Amber Alert on their iOS device while they had AirPods on. However, the alert's volume was too loud for B.G.'s right ear, resulting in the child suffering a broken right eardrum and damaged cochlea following the Amber Alert.
B.G.'s parents described the sound produced by the Amber Alert as an "ear-shattering" sound level. They also claimed that the AirPods B.G. had, specifically his right AirPod, was defective as it failed to automatically reduce or limit notification and/or alert volumes, including Amber Alerts. They also mentioned that Apple failed to include any kind of warning regardless of its adequacy of the defects previously mentioned.
Should a court of law find Apple guilty of being negligent and fraudulent and producing "defective" AirPods, per Macrumors, it would have to pay B.G. and his parents a total of $75,000, excluding interest and costs.
Reuters reported that the family was aware that Apple knows its AirPods played "extremely loud alerts" from online complaints since 2019 from users who noted that AirPods did not adjust the alert volume to match the media being played at the time of the alert's arrival.
Tej Paranjpe, a lawyer from PMR law and the layer for B.G. and his family, stated that B.G.'s life "has been severely altered because Apple did not provide a warning about the volume levels of its AirPods, leading to [B.G.'s] permanent hearing loss."
Paranjpe also said that Apple's alleged negligence during the "defective" AirPod's designing, manufacturing, and marketing, B.G. has suffered "significant temporary and permanent, continuous injuries, pain and suffering, disability, and impairment in the past and that will continue in the future."
"B.G. has lost his ability to live a normal life, and he will continue to live a diminished life into the future, including a diminished earning capacity," Paranjpe added.
What Are Amber Alerts?
Amber Alerts, also known as child abduction alerts, are issued by local law enforcement agencies when there is a reasonable belief that an abduction has occurred or when the child abducted is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death per the official Amber Alert website.
The alert was created in 1996 when Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters collaborated with local police to develop an early warning system to help find abducted children.
The alert was named after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, kidnapped while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, and then brutally murdered.
