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recently Proposed class action lawsuit (PDF) It claims that Roku and TCL have released software updates that made their TVs malfunction or stop working altogether.
The lawsuit alleges that the companies released software updates that were “repeatedly defective, significantly impairing the functionality of Roku products.” In other words, companies are fortifying their TVs by “failing to ensure that software updates are truly flawless either in the testing or at scale stages.”
The companies also failed to fix these errors, resulting in customers’ TVs not turning on, the complaint said.
The suit specifically lists the Roku Select Series, Roku Plus Series, and TCL 3, 4, 5, and 6-Series models running Roku OS.
Plaintiff, Terry Elsie, The lawsuit was filed In the US District Court for the Central District of California. Else said she bought a TCL Roku TV from a major retailer in 2018. Just a few years later, the TV started malfunctioning, flashing a white light before turning black and refusing to display any images, Else says. It says that by January 2023, the TV had stopped working completely — and TCL refused to cover software defects under its warranty.
Else purchased a replacement TV but said it too had been unusable within a year, only showing a black screen while the sound worked normally.
“We believe these allegations are baseless,” a Roku spokesperson told CNET. A TCL representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This isn’t the only recent lawsuit claiming streaming devices are dying due to planned obsolescence. In April, Similar complaint It was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging that Amazon intentionally disabled Fire TV devices “before the end of their useful life.”
A paper trail for previous complaints
A large number of American households own a TV running Roku OS. According to the complaint, More than 90 million American families You have at least one Roku device. This represents “nearly half of the broadband households in the United States.”
The Else filing claims that Roku and TCL are aware of the software flaws, as both companies’ websites include FAQs to help troubleshoot problems offered by the updates, and the Roku Community forum contains a wide range of customer complaints.
Similar complaints can be found on other social media sites such as Reddit and X. The lawsuit cites several specific posts supporting the Else experience, including troubleshooting failures in the FAQ, multiple display failures from the same TV and warranty replacement denials from the company.
The proposed class action would be open to anyone residing in the United States who purchased Roku TV products manufactured by Roku or TCL at any time after December 16, 2024.