TCL Updates Court on Notification Status of Class-Action Settlement

TCL submitted a status report Tuesday on a class-action settlement filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco in the case of Julian v. TTE Technology in which the plaintiffs alleged TCL North America marketed certain TVs as having a frame rate twice as high as their actual refresh rate.

The complaint alleged TCL “deceptively advertised certain of its televisions with 60Hz native refresh rate panels as ‘120Hz CMI,’ ‘120Hz Clear Motion Index,’ and/or ‘120Hz CMI Effective Refresh Rate.'" The class action covers new TCL TVs bought in California between April 2016 and year-end 2021.

The court granted the plaintiff’s motion for preliminary approval June 30, and class notice began Aug. 8, said the update. In the process of preparing the class notice, TCL discovered it couldn’t implement the push notification notice as outlined in the preliminary approval order, said Tuesday's status report. The order had directed that TCL issue one-time push notifications through the TCL Home App and T-Cast app for iPhone and Android devices informing users about the settlement, the update said.

When the TV maker attempted to code the push notifications on the app, it discovered it wasn’t possible given the current technical architecture and configuration of the TCL Home App, the update said. The company had similar issues when trying to code notifications on the T-Cast App, and “despite initial information to the contrary, TCL determined that the T-Cast App has few users in the U.S. and is not promoted for use in the U.S.”

TCL sought “reasonable alternatives” to provide notice, it said, and now, instead of the push notifications, the company is placing a banner on the TCL Home App for the 60-day claims period, which ends Oct. 7, and another on the TCL Channel on its smart TVs. The text of the banner is “abbreviated on The TCL Channel to accommodate character limits but is substantively the same” as determined in the settlement, the company said. Both banners give click-through access to the claims administration website, TCL said.

TCL “believes in good faith” that the alternate notice methods will meet or exceed the reach of the planned one-time push notifications. It conferred with the plaintiff’s counsel on the alternate solutions; counsel didn’t object to the use of banner notifications, it said.

Under the settlement, TCL agreed to pay $2.9 million, set at $15 per valid claim and subject to a pro rata increase up to $40, or a decrease, depending on the number of approved claims submitted. The class counsel also requested an award of up to 25% of the settlement fund for attorneys’ fees, plus $150,000 in additional expenses and fees.