Sony, Apple sued over exploding battery

Having begrudgingly recalled more than 10 million laptop batteries due to overheating, flaming and exploding incidents last year, you'd think Sony would have been hit with more lawsuits from consumers. It comes as a bit of a surprise, then, that this is the first that we've heard of: A Japanese couple has filed a lawsuit against Sony and Apple in the Osaka District Court, over a notebook that spontaneously burst into flames in April of last year. Japanese broadcaster NHK reported that the man suffered burns on his finger while his wife was forced to seek medical treatment due to distress resulting from the incident. The couple is asking for a modest 2 million Yen in compensation (around $16,700 USD). While that might not seem like much, it's not a surprising number considering the nature of litigation in Japan, where such suits brought by consumers are relatively scarce and big cash settlements are even more scarce. Could this be the suit that opens the floodgates wide? Sony certainly hopes not: the company is predicted to have lost as much as $300 million last year as a direct result of the battery fiasco.

For more on the suit:
- see this article from the International Herald Tribune