LG faces class-action lawsuit over G4 and V10 bootloop issues

Several owners of LG G4 and V10 have filed a class-action lawsuit against LG in the California federal court claiming repeated bootloop issue "renders the phones inoperable and unfit for any use".

A plaintiff in the lawsuit that was filed on Wednesday (15 March) claims the company replaced his G4 twice and his third phone was "manifesting signs of the bootloop defect and is unmerchantable".

"Despite this admission, LG did not undertake a recall or offer an adequate remedy to consumers who purchased the LG G4 phone. LG instead replaced LG G4s that failed within the one-year warranty period with phones that had the same defect. And LG refused to provide any remedy to purchasers of LG G4s that failed outside the warranty period because of the bootloop defect," claims the lawsuit, spotted by Ars Technica.

As for the V10, the lawsuit claims: "LG released the LG V10 phone in October 2015. The LG V10's hardware closely resembles the LG G4 with only a few adjustments, such as expanded storage and an additional camera. Within a few months of its release, reports emerged that the V10 contained the same bootloop defect as the G4. LG V10 phones unexpectedly crash and then reboot interminably. Yet LG continues to sell and distribute the V10."

LG reportedly acknowledged the problem with the G4 a year ago saying the bootloop was the result of "loose contact between components". While the company was offering replacement devices and fixes, the lawsuit claims that after the announcement in 2016, "LG continued to manufacture LG phones with the bootloop defect".

It further claims that both the processors of the phones were inadequately soldered to the motherboard as a result of which the solder bumps connecting the processor to the motherboard were unable to withstand the heat. This eventually led to the phones freezing, becoming temporarily non-functional, suffering performance slowdowns, overheating and rebooting at random.

The suit further claims: "To the extent they have not been backed up, all photographs, videos, contacts, and other data on the phone are permanently lost when LG Phones fail due to the bootloop defect."

The plaintiffs urged LG to provide a comprehensive programme to fix the phones having bootloop defect and return the members "all costs attributable to the bootloop defect including economic losses connected with their purchase of replacement phones".

There are already complaints about the G4 posted on Twitter, Reddit and YouTube. The LG V10 is no exception. Users had filed an online petition urging LG to "launch a free replacement programme for all owners affected by this defect, regardless of the region or model number variant of G4".