Mercedes-Benz Tele Aid System
Consumer Fraud Class Action
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, represents owners and lessees of Mercedes-Benz cars and SUVs equipped with the Tele-Aid system. The complaint charges that Mercedes-Benz violated laws against consumer fraud by promoting and selling the Tele-Aid system without disclosing to buyers of certain model years that the Tele-Aid system as installed will stop working in 2008 when cellular telephone companies switch from analog to digital technology.
Mercedes-Benz is charging its customers, some as much as $1,500, to install a new Tele-Aid system that will work with digital technology.
Background on Tele Aid System and Analog Signals
Mercedes-Benz began marketing Tele-Aid systems for its cars and SUVs in 2000. Mercedes Benz advertised the Tele-Aid system as using advanced wireless communication technology to provide subscribers with emergency road-side assistance, unlock a car’s doors, and track stolen cars.
Wireless telephone networks operate on either an analog or a digital signal. When Mercedes-Benz began marketing the Tele-Aid system, Tele-Aid communications were conducted over an analog signal. The analog Tele-Aid system was installed in Mercedes-Benz’s model year 2002, 2003, and 2004, and some 2005 and 2006 vehicles. Later vehicles, however, were fitted with Tele-Aid systems that had been re-engineered to communicate over a digital signal.
FCC Rule Makes Systems Relying on Analog System Absolute
In May 2001, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) proposed eliminating the requirement that wireless phone carriers provide analog-based networks. Mercedes-Benz, realizing that this change in FCC policy would cause wireless companies to stop providing analog network service, submitted comments to the FCC, objecting to the proposed change.
Mercedes-Benz argued that the hundreds of millions of dollars that had been invested by car owners and manufacturers in analog communications equipment would become worthless if the FCC's analog service requirement was eliminated because Mercedes-Benz's vehicles, whose Tele-Aid systems rely on the analog signal, were intended to be on the road for up to twenty years.
Nevertheless, on August 8, 2002, the FCC announced its decision: after a five-year transition period, wireless phone carriers would no longer have to provide an analog network.
Plaintiff's Complaint Against Mercedes-Benz
After the FCC's announced its decision, Mercedes-Benz continued to install and promote analog Tele-Aid systems in its vehicles without telling its customers that the analog network over which the Tele-Aid systems operates will stop working on January 1, 2008.
In February and March 2007, Mercedes-Benz told its analog Tele-Aid customers that their analog Tele-Aid service will no longer work after December 2007.
Mercedes-Benz told customers that they could pay to upgrade their Tele-Aid system to operate over a digital network. For some cars, the cost will be as much as $1,500.
Plaintiffs’ complaint seeks damages for Mercedes-Benz fraudulent conduct, along with reimbursement for Mercedes-Benz customers with analog systems who paid to upgrade their Tele-Aid systems to operate on a digital network.
Class Certification
On April 27, 2009, the U.S. District Court Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise granted plaintiffs' motion for class certification and defined the nationwide class as follows:
All persons or entities in the United States who purchased or leased a Mercedes-Benz vehicle equipped with an analog-only Tele Aid system after August 8, 2002, and
(1) subscribed to Tele Aid service until being informed that such service would be discontinued at the end of 2007, or
(2) purchased an upgrade to digital equipment.
The Court found that:
[A] a class action will be the most efficient method for adjudicating Plaintiffs’ claims. Individual class members have little to no interest in controlling the prosecution of separate actions. To the contrary, the requirement that potential class members individually pursue their claims would effectively bar recovery by creating a situation in which the cost to each Plaintiff of litigating his or her claim would exceed any potential recovery.
On June 4, 2009, the Third Circuit Court of Appeal summarily denied the petition for leave by Mercedes-Benz to appeal the decision of the district court to grant class certification.
On March 15, 2010 the U.S. District Court denied motions by Mercedes Benz to decertify the class of plaintiffs.
Mercedes-Benz Customers with Complaints Concerning the Tele Aid System: Contact Lieff Cabraser
We are interested in learning of experiences of Mercedes-Benz customers nationwide and will review your claim against Mercedes-Benz for consumer fraud without charge or any obligation on your part. Please click here to contact a Lieff Cabraser attorney.
Consumer Complaints Against other Companies
Since 2002, companies have been on notice that analog wireless systems will become obsolete or less effective in 2008. Many companies have failed to disclose this critical information to consumers. The analog signal loss may affect:
- Users of home and business security systems with cellular signal backup;
- Purchasers of fleet management systems;
- Purchasers of campus and highway emergency call boxes;
- Purchasers of "dual mode" analog digital cell phones;
- Purchasers of "panic button" alert systems.
If you own such a system and it operates on an analog system, please feel free to submit your complaint to a Lieff Cabraser attorney.
Consumer Legal Rights
State and federal laws provide consumers with remedies for products that were defectively designed or manufactured or do not perform as advertised. This is true in many cases even after the warranty period has expired. The cost for a consumer to hire an attorney and file an individual lawsuit against the manufacturer of the defective product is often prohibitive.
The law, however, does not leave the consumer powerless. A small number of consumers may file a class action lawsuit, representing all consumers that purchased the defective product. A class action suit can provide a powerful and effective means for consumers to compel a corporation to acknowledge its legal responsibilities and provide just compensation to the class members.
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