Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Battery Recall: What the CPSC Records Show

Was Your Phone Covered? Affected Products and Models

Both recalls involve one product line, the Samsung Galaxy Note7 smartphone, and both CPSC notices list the same manufacturer: "Samsung Electronics America Inc., of Ridgefield Park, N.J." A recall is generally an action in which a company asks consumers to stop using a product and offers a remedy, such as a refund or a replacement.

The first notice is CPSC recall number 16-266, "Samsung Recalls Galaxy Note7 Smartphones Due to Serious Fire and Burn Hazards", dated September 15, 2016. It states that it "involves the Samsung Galaxy Note7 smartphone sold before September 15, 2016," and lists about 1 million units. It describes the devices as having "a 5.7 inch screen" and as sold in "black onyx, blue coral, gold platinum and silver titanium with a matching stylus," with "Samsung" printed on the top front and "Galaxy Note7" on the back. To check a phone, that notice directed owners to "locate the IMEI number on the back of the phone or the packaging" and enter it at Samsung's registration site or call Samsung.

The second notice is CPSC recall number 17-011, "Samsung Expands Recall of Galaxy Note7 Smartphones Based on Additional Incidents with Replacement Phones; Serious Fire and Burn Hazards", dated October 13, 2016. Its scope is broader. It states: "This recall involves all Samsung Galaxy Note7 smartphones," including "all Galaxy Note7 devices received as replacements as part of the previous Galaxy Note7 recall on September 15, 2016 and any Galaxy Note 7 with a green battery icon, regardless of date purchased or IMEI." It lists "About 1.9 million" units, which it says "includes the 1 million Galaxy Note7s recalled on September 15, 2016."

Neither notice lists separate model numbers; each identifies the phone by name, screen size, colors and markings. The notices list carriers and electronics stores, Samsung's website and other websites as places of sale, at prices between $850 and $890. Both state that the phones were manufactured in South Korea and China, and both are labeled "Fast Track Recall."

For someone who owned one of these phones, scope tells you which notice describes the device in your hands. Under the October notice's wording, a Note 7 is covered whether it was an original or a replacement. If you still have the phone, its packaging or a purchase record, those items can show the name, markings, IMEI and date of purchase, and whether it was an original or a replacement is one of the first questions a conversation with an attorney may sort out.

If a Note 7 Overheated Near You: The Lithium-Ion Battery Hazard the CPSC Identified

The two notices describe the hazard in almost the same words. Recall 16-266 states: "The lithium-ion battery in the Galaxy Note7 smartphones can overheat and catch fire, posing a serious burn hazard to consumers." Recall 17-011 states: "The lithium-ion battery in the Galaxy Note7 smartphones can overheat and catch fire, posing serious fire and burn hazard to consumers." The October wording adds fire to burns as the named hazard.

The battery inside the phone you carried or charged is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, which stores and releases energy by moving lithium ions between two electrodes inside each cell. It is the same kind found in most phones, laptops, power banks and e-bikes, and it holds a great deal of energy in a small space, which is why a failure can happen close to the body or the bed.

When these batteries fail, the term people often meet is thermal runaway: a cell that makes heat faster than it can shed it, so the heat feeds a reaction that keeps going on its own and can end in fire or an explosion. The CPSC notices themselves use the words "overheat" and "catch fire"; they do not use the term thermal runaway or describe a root cause, and this page does not go beyond what they say.

For someone who was holding, charging or sleeping near one of these phones, the hazard statement is the government's public description of the risk. It describes a hazard, not what happened to any one phone, a point the section below on recall records takes up. What may matter next is the account of the event itself: where the phone was, whether it was charging, and what the scene looked like afterward.

Other battery recalls on this site follow the same approach, including the INIU power bank recall and the Anker battery recall records: each record is reported as its official page states it, and no further.

Incident Counts the CPSC Reported

Each notice includes an "Incidents/Injuries" line, and the numbers changed between September and October.

Recall 16-266 states: "Samsung has received 92 reports of the batteries overheating in the U.S., including 26 reports of burns and 55 reports of property damage, including fires in cars and a garage."

Recall 17-011 states: "Samsung has received 96 reports of batteries in Note7 phones overheating in the U.S., including 23 new reports since the September 15 recall announcement. Samsung has received 13 reports of burns and 47 reports of property damage associated with Note7 phones."

These are counts of reports Samsung had received, as each CPSC notice stated them on its own date. They are not a full tally of every Note 7 fire, burn or property loss, and the two notices count in different ways, so the October figures are not a simple update of the September ones. This page states no combined total.

A related federal rule explains why these lines appear at all. Under 15 U.S.C. § 2064(i)(2), a recall notice required under a CPSC order generally includes, among other items, "The number and a description of any injuries or deaths associated with the product, the ages of any individuals injured or killed, and the dates on which the Commission received information about such injuries or deaths." The same subsection lets the Commission leave out items it finds unnecessary or inappropriate for a given product.

If you were burned or lost property in a Note 7 fire, it can be meaningful to see burns and fires in cars and a garage in the public record. Whether your own event is reflected in these counts is not something the notices show; what an attorney would usually look at instead is the device, where it was, how it was being used or charged, and what the physical evidence shows.

What the Official Remedy Required

The September notice, Recall 16-266, states the remedy this way: "Consumers should immediately stop using and power down the recalled Galaxy Note7 devices purchased before September 15, 2016. Contact the wireless carrier, retail outlet or Samsung.com where you purchased your device to receive free of charge a new Galaxy Note7 with a different battery, a refund or a new replacement device. Go to www.samsung.com for more details."

That first remedy included, as one option, a new Note 7 with a different battery. The October notice, Recall 17-011, was issued, in its own title's words, "Based on Additional Incidents with Replacement Phones," and its remedy reaches those replacements. It states that consumers "should immediately stop using and power down all Galaxy Note7 devices, including Note7 devices received as replacements in the previous recall," and that owners could contact the carrier, retail outlet or Samsung.com where they bought the device "to receive a refund or free exchange for a new replacement device plus incentives." It adds that "Consumers who purchased their phones from other sources should contact Samsung directly to receive a free remedy."

Both notices list the same consumer contact: the wireless carrier or place of purchase, Samsung's toll-free line at 844-365-6197 from 9 am to 6 pm Monday through Friday (EST), or samsung.com. The October notice also points to samsung.com/us/note7recall. Both CPSC pages carry a recall complaint form for people who believe "a company is being non-responsive to your remedy request."

Federal law describes what a remedy can look like when the CPSC orders one. Under 15 U.S.C. § 2064(d), the Commission may order a firm to repair the product, replace it with a like or equivalent product, or refund the purchase price, with a reasonable allowance for use in some circumstances. These notices are labeled "Fast Track Recall," and neither describes itself as an order.

These remedies are reported here as the 2016 notices announced them; what the recall program offers today is a matter for the CPSC's and Samsung's own current communications. If you received a replacement, exchanged a phone or kept a burned one, records of those steps may help show which device was involved. The remedy addresses the phone, not an injury, and a damaged device may also matter as evidence, as the next section explains.

What a Recall Record Does and Does Not Establish for an Injury Claim

If you are trying to understand whether these notices help an injury claim, the short answer is that they set the background but do not decide it. A recall is not a defect finding, an incident report is not proof of what caused a particular injury, and neither Note 7 notice is a court judgment or finds that Samsung is liable to anyone.

The legal question for an injured person sits in a different body of law. Product liability is the area of law that allows a person hurt by a product to seek damages from those in the product's chain of distribution, such as a manufacturer, distributor or seller, by showing that the product had a defect and that the defect caused the injury. The elements and defenses come from state law and differ from state to state.

In a claim about a phone fire, the question of what went wrong usually falls into one of three kinds of defect: a design defect, where the product's design was unreasonably dangerous; a manufacturing defect, where a particular unit departed from its intended design; or a warning defect, where the product lacked adequate instructions or warnings about a known risk. Which theory fits depends on what the evidence from your phone and your event shows. The CPSC uses a similar idea for its own reporting rules. Under 16 C.F.R. § 1115.4, "a defect is a fault, flaw, or irregularity that causes weakness, failure, or inadequacy in form or function," and it "can also occur in a product's contents, construction, finish, packaging, warnings, and/or instructions." That regulation explains when a firm must report to the agency; it does not decide anyone's injury claim.

Federal law also asks firms to report early. Under 15 U.S.C. § 2064(b), a manufacturer, distributor or retailer that obtains information which "reasonably supports the conclusion" that its product has a defect that could create a substantial product hazard, or "creates an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death," must "immediately inform the Commission," unless it knows the Commission has already been adequately informed. Reporting under that rule is not an admission of a defect.

So the claim turns on proof about one device and one event. If you were hurt, the records that usually matter include the phone itself or what remains of it, the purchase record or order history, medical records documenting the burns, photos or video of the injury and the damage, any fire department, police or insurance report, and the names of anyone who saw what happened. Whether those facts support a claim depends on the specific situation, the state's law, and the elements a product liability claim requires.

Why the State Where You Were Hurt Shapes What Comes Next

A statute of limitations is the period within which a lawsuit has to be filed; after it runs out, a court will generally not hear the claim. For injuries from a product such as a phone battery, those periods are set by state law, and they differ from state to state. No single deadline applies everywhere in the United States, and many states have their own rules on when the period starts to run and on exceptions to it.

Fault rules differ as well. Some states reduce what an injured person may recover by their own share of fault under a comparative fault rule; a few states follow contributory fault, which can bar recovery if the injured person was at fault at all. The rules on what categories of damages the law may allow, and on who may bring a claim after a death, also vary. That is why the state where the fire happened, and sometimes where the phone was bought, can shape everything that follows. One state's rules are set out on this site's page on California lithium battery injury rules; they are California's rules only, not a model for anywhere else.

For a Note 7 owner, the passage of time since 2016 makes this question especially pressing to understand, because the deadline that applies depends on the state and on facts such as when the injury happened and when it was discovered. Weighing that may mean gathering the dates of the fire, the treatment and any reports, and the state where it all took place.

If you were hurt near one of these phones and want to understand which state's rules may apply to what happened, you may want to consider requesting a case evaluation to talk through the dates, the device and the injuries with our attorney.