Child car seats now may come with expiration dates. Newell Brands, Inc. and Graco Children’s Products, Inc. are the companies behind Graco-brand car seats, and the complaint for this class action alleges that the seats are being offered for sale with “a significant portion of their limited useful life … expired.”
The class for this action is all persons in New Jersey who, between November 16, 2014 and November 16, 2020, bought a new Graco car seat online.
The complaint calls the companies “a leading manufacturer of car seats for children of all ages, including … infant car seats, convertible car seats, child safety seats, and booster seats…” The car seats, the complaint claims, “have a limited useful life from their date of manufacture.”
In January 2019, plaintiff Matthew Schmitt received the gift of a new car seat for his daughter. The car seat was a Graco® 4Ever® 4-in-1 Convertible Car Seat” manufactured on January 16, 2018. In other words, it was around a year old.
In August 2020, Schmitt bought another car seat made by Graco for his daughter, a SlimFit™ Platinum 3-in-1 that he ordered from gracobaby.com, for which he paid $226.57. A sticker on that car seat said it had been manufactured on March 7, 2019, making it nearly a year and a half old.
The complaint claims the car seat’s manual says that consumer should “STOP using this car seat and throw it away 10 years after the date of manufacture.” Why? The complaint quotes the website as saying that its “[c]ar seats can be used safely only for a defined period of time, typically 7 to 10 years.”
This expiration date is advertised for some of the products on the website. For example, the complaint says that the earlier car seat is advertised there as “giv[ing] you 10 years with one car seat[.]” But the complaint alleges, “This is untrue for the sesats that are sold with a significant portion of their useful life expired.”
It charges that the seat Schmitt bought in August 2020 “arrived having been depreciated of essentially 15% of its useful life.” Schmitt was not warned of this fact when he was buying the car seat, the complaint says, and only discovered it after the seat had arrived. In fact, it claims Graco admits that consumers can’t know how depreciated the car seats are when they order them, warning on its site that consumers “unfortunately” do not have any way of checking the date of manufacture of the seat they want to order online.”
The complaint alleges that it is unfair to have “seats that are held out as new, but were in fact expired in substantial part.”
The causes of action include breaches of warranty and violation of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, among other things.
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Consumer
Most Recent Case Event
Graco Car Seats Useful Life Partly Expired New Jersey Complaint
November 16, 2020
Child car seats now may come with expiration dates. Newell Brands, Inc. and Graco Children’s Products, Inc. are the companies behind Graco-brand car seats, and the complaint for this class action alleges that the seats are being offered for sale with “a significant portion of their limited useful life … expired.”
Graco Car Seats Useful Life Partly Expired New Jersey ComplaintCase Event History
Graco Car Seats Useful Life Partly Expired New Jersey Complaint
November 16, 2020
Child car seats now may come with expiration dates. Newell Brands, Inc. and Graco Children’s Products, Inc. are the companies behind Graco-brand car seats, and the complaint for this class action alleges that the seats are being offered for sale with “a significant portion of their limited useful life … expired.”
Graco Car Seats Useful Life Partly Expired New Jersey Complaint