Fitbit pays $12 million fine for Ionic smartwatches that burned users

Google’s Fitbit is paying a lot of money for a critical issue that turned its Ionic smartwatches into small torches. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced this week that Fitbit has agreed to pay a $12.25 million fine for failure to report serious burn hazard with Ionic smartwatches.

According to CPSC, during 2018 and 2019 and continuing into 2020, Fitbit received numerous reports of the Ionic smartwatches overheating while being worn by consumers, causing some consumers to sustain burns including second-degree and third-degree (!) burns on their arms or wrists.

Even though Fitbit initiated a firmware update to mitigate the potential for battery overheating in early 2020, the company continued to receive reports of consumers suffering burns due to the wearable device overheating.

Because Fitbit did not immediately report to the CPSC as required, even though it possessed information that reasonably supported the conclusion that the smartwatches contained a defect that could create a substantial product hazard or created an unreasonable risk of serious injury, it was fined by the Commission.

It’s also worth mentioning that the CPSC and Fitbit announced a recall of the Ionic smartwatches back in March 2022, which stated that the company had received at least 115 reports in the United States of the battery in the smartwatch overheating, with 78 reports of burn injuries in the US including two reports of third-degree burns and four reports of second-degree burns.

The Commission announced that apart from the $12.25 million civil penalty, the settlement agreement requires Fitbit to “maintain internal controls and procedures designed to ensure compliance with the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA), including enhancements made to its compliance program.”

In addition, Fitbit will now have to submit an annual report regarding its compliance program, internal controls, and internal audit of the effectiveness of compliance policies, procedures, systems and training.