Monster, Best Buy ‘Misrepresent’ Performance of Pricey HDMI Cables, Says Federal Complaint

Monster and its retailer Best Buy “misrepresent” that 1080p and 4K TVs “will not work properly” unless consumers use Monster HDMI cables with bandwidths of 18, 22.5 or 27 Gbps, alleged a consumer protection and false advertising complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The case is number 3:2015cv03885. “In fact, any HDMI cable with a bandwidth of just 10.2 Gbps can transmit all 1080p and 4K signals perfectly,” said the complaint, which seeks class-action status. Consumer Benjamin Perez, a resident of Orange, California, paid $189 for a Monster Ultra High Speed HDMI cable at his local Best Buy store because he believed Monster and Best Buy claims that such an expensive cable was needed “to transmit video signals to his television,” Perez’s complaint said. Perez “would have only been willing to pay a substantially reduced price for a Monster HDMI cable, had he known that the representation was false and misleading,” the complaint said. Monster places its “misrepresentations prominently and conspicuously on the packaging of every HDMI cable that it sells” in the U.S., the complaint said. “Best Buy affirms these misrepresentations at the time of sale.” Perez argues that “the false and misleading labels on Monster HDMI cables are highly material to consumers and serve to differentiate Monster HDMI cables from those of other manufacturers,” his complaint said. Those labels allow Monster and Best Buy to charge a hefty “price premium” for Monster HDMI cables, it said. Monster and Best Buy representatives didn’t comment.