A couple years back, Samsung had a huge problem with faulty batteries causing one of its smartphones, the Galaxy Note 7, to occasionally catch fire. The issue was disastrous for the company, so it will no doubt be displeased to see a lawsuit alleging that a Galaxy Note 9, the most recent version of the large-screened device, has also ignited.
As reported Saturday by the New York Post, a New York real estate agent named Diane Chung earlier this month found her new Note 9 was getting “extremely hot.” She put it in her bag and then heard a “whistling and screeching sound” coming from the bag, along with “thick smoke.”
According to her lawsuit, filed at the Queens Supreme Court, Chung burned her fingers as she got the phone out of her bag in an elevator, then kicked the phone out of the elevator when she got to the lobby. Someone put out the fire by grabbing the smoldering phone with a cloth and dropping it into a bucket of water, the suit claims.
Chung wants to see Samsung hit with a restraining order to prevent further sales of the Note 9, and is also seeking damages. For its part, Samsung told the Post that it has “not received any reports of similar incidents involving a Galaxy Note 9 device and [is] investigating the matter.”
If the problem does prove to be a repeat of the Note 7 debacle, that would be extremely bad news for Samsung (SSNLF).
The Note 7 was Samsung’s flagship device in 2016, but dozens of the phones blew up or caught fire. After having to abruptly discontinue the phone, Samsung concluded that the fault lay in the Note 7’s battery.
The Note 7 saga cost Samsung a 5% share of the worldwide smartphone sales market, hammered its stock price and led to tremendous reputational damage for the South Korean company.
When launching the Note 9 last month, Samsung president Koh Dong-jin said the battery in the device was “safer than ever,” and “users do not have to worry about the batteries anymore.”
“Samsung takes customer safety very seriously and we stand behind the quality of the millions of Galaxy devices in use in the United States,” Samsung told Fortune Monday.
This article was updated to include Samsung’s statement.
