Fitbit pays Uncle Sam $12M to sprint away from claims of burning-hot smartwatches

Your workout warm-up instructions didn't say anything about setting wrists on fire – allegedly!

Years after recalling one of its smartwatches over overheating batteries that burned people, Fitbit has agreed to pay a $12.25 million civil penalty to the US government to settle allegations it knew about the risk but failed to immediately report it as required by law.

The nation's Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said yesterday the fitness-monitoring wearable maker had agreed to its settlement terms, which put to bed claims that, despite receiving the first reports of burns in 2018, Fitbit failed to notify the safety watchdog in a timely manner. The recall of the Fitbit Ionic smartwatches was ultimately announced in 2022 in coordination with the CPSC. 

While there weren't too many incidents related to the bad batteries - 115 reports of overheating Ionics in the US, with 78 reports of burn injuries - the CPSC said Fitbit was well aware of the problem well before the recall. It even tried to address the issue with a software update in 2020 (prior to Google completing its acquisition of Fitbit), but the update failed to solve the problem, the CPSC said. 

"Despite possessing 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, Fitbit did not immediately report to the Commission as required," the commission said in a statement. 

Google completed its takeover of Fitbit in January 2021, eventually folding many aspects of Fitbit's operations into its own ecosystem by 2023 while retaining the smaller biz as a distinct brand. Despite the Chrome giant taking ownership of Fitbit, it took more than a year for the recall of Ionic devices to be issued in March 2022, addressing overheating risks that had been known prior to the acquisition.

We asked Google, which now handles press inquiries for the Fitbit brand, why it didn't immediately report the issue to the CPSC once it took ownership of the smartwatch slinger. The web kingpin declined to answer.

"Customer safety continues to be our top priority, and we're pleased to resolve this matter with the CPSC stemming from the 2022 voluntary recall of Fitbit Ionic," a spokesperson instead told us. 

The settlement doesn't include any admission of wrongdoing by Fitbit (or Google - which isn't mentioned once in the settlement agreement [PDF]). However, the terms require Fitbit to enhance its Consumer Product Safety Act compliance practices and submit an annual report on its compliance efforts.

"Fitbit should have immediately reported numerous overheating incidents, including second- and third-degree burns … many of these injuries could have been prevented," CPSC commissioner Richard Trumka said of the settlement. "I hope that this penalty deters manufacturers, distributors, and retailers from ignoring their responsibilities." ®