Geske v. PNY Techs., Inc.

Geske v. PNY Techs., Inc.

Opinion

 [*692]  MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

This case involves a weak power bank. Plaintiff Cassandra Geske bought a portable power bank at the grocery store so that she could charge her electronic devices on the go. She purchased a PowerPack 5200, manufactured by Defendant PNY Technologies. The packaging prominently declared that it offered "5200 mAh" of available power for "3x CHARGES*." She thought that [**2]  the power bank would deliver "5200 mAh" of power to her cell phone.

But the power bank was not as powerful as she had expected. She had to recharge the power bank more often than she thought. She later discovered that the power bank was never capable of delivering 5200 mAh of power at all. The power bank itself consumes a significant portion of the power. So PNY charges too much for a product that charges too little.

Geske sued PNY on behalf of herself and a putative class of purchasers of PNY power banks. She claims that PNY misrepresented the power of its products. She alleges an economic injury measured by the difference in value between the product as promised and the product as delivered. She seeks an injunction, too, even though there is no reason to believe that she is going to buy another weak power bank.

PNY moved to dismiss for lack of standing, and for failure to state a claim for which relief can be granted. For the reasons explained below, the motion is granted in part and denied in part.

Background

] At the motion to dismiss stage, the Court must accept as true the well-pleaded allegations of the complaint. See Lett v. City of Chicago, 946 F.3d 398, 399 (7th Cir. 2020). The Court "offer[s] no opinion on the ultimate merits because [**3]  further development of the record may cast the facts in a light different from the complaint." Savory v. Cannon, 947 F.3d 409, 412 (7th Cir. 2020).

Portable electronic devices, especially cell phones, are omnipresent in modern American life. See Am. Cplt., at ¶ 1 (Dckt. No. 39); see also Carpenter v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 2206, 2211, 201 L. Ed. 2d 507 (2018) (stating that in 2018 there were 396 million cellphone service accounts in a country of 326 million people). As any user is all too aware, electronic devices need power to function. See Am. Cplt., at ¶ 2. To help consumers charge their devices on the go, technology companies created portable chargers, otherwise known as power banks. Id. at ¶¶ 3-4.

Full case includes Shepard's, Headnotes, Legal Analytics from Lex Machina, and more.