Proposed Class Action Lawsuit filed against Peloton over the Peloton Tread+

On Tuesday, a proposed class action lawsuit was filed against Peloton regarding safety issues with the Peloton Tread+. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California as first reported by Bloomberg Law. The case is Shannon Albright v Peloton Interactive, and has the case number 3:21-cv-02858.

The case states it is being filed over Peloton’s “violations of applicable consumer protection laws, unfair business practice laws and breaches of warranties in connection with the manufacture, marketing, sale, and failure to honor warranties of PELOTON “Tread+” treadmill”

In the complaint, they allege that Peloton has marketed the Tread+ as being appropriate for families, stating

“Defendants marketed this device as one appropriate with family use, advertising the product with pictures like the one below, featuring a woman with a young girl, presumably her daughter, working out with the device, using its screen to follow along while the exercise immediately next to the machine. Chillingly, the child featured in the picture is exactly the sort of victim that the Tread+ machine is uniquely capable of killing or maiming”

The complaint then embeds the following picture:

Image courtesy court documents.
Image courtesy court documents.

The filing then goes on to allege that the Peloton Tread+ has unique design flaws, making it more likely objects, pets, or kids could get stuck under the Treadmill while it is in use.

The Tread+ contains significant design flaws that makes it defective, unfit for use in a home with children, and unreasonably dangerous for its intended purpose. Namely, because the design is extremely susceptible to children (and pets) getting trapped underneath the machine while it is operating. This risk does not extend only to children using the machine without being supervised. Parents, while using the Tread+, have had their children approach the machine, out of eyesight of the parent, and those children been trapped and injured by the Tread+ machine. At least one child has died as a result of the Tread+, and at least several dozens more injured, and there may be hundreds or thousands of more injuries that are not currently public knowledge. As noted above, the injuries that children may suffer from the Tread+ machine can range from bruising and abrasion, to broken bones, to permanent brain injury, to death.

The complaint then goes on to mention how the Consumer Product Safety Commission recently issued a safety warning to customers, and in response, Peloton’s CEO John Foley has stated they do not plan to do a recall.

The complaint requests that “Plaintiff and class members should be provided with either a refund or replacement with a device that is not nearly as dangerous to children and pets,” but also alleges that customers suffered financial harm:

As a result of the wrongful acts, omissions, and deceptive scheme of Defendant, Plaintiff and consumers have been financially harmed by Defendants’ false and misleading advertisements, misrepresentations, and untrue statements. Upon purchasing Defendants’ Peloton Tread+ for the purchase price of $4,295 and for the cost of ongoing subscriptions, Plaintiff understood the product to be safe for use in a home with children. Based upon the implied warranty of merchantability and fitness for a particular use, Plaintiff were injured upon discovering that the product posed direct health and safety risks to children.

At time of publishing, Peloton had yet to respond to requests for comment by Bloomberg and other news organizations over the suit.

The suit is requesting to be granted class action status.

You can see the full complaint that was filed with the court here.


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Chris Lewis
Chris Lewis is the creator & founder of Pelo Buddy. He purchased his Peloton in 2018, and uses all the different devices: Peloton Bike, Tread, Row, and Guide. He has been involved in the fitness industry for more than a decade - previously co-founding the websites Mud Run Guide & Ninja Guide. You can find him on the leaderboard at #PeloBuddy.

3 Comments

  • Nicole Rand says:

    Sounds like a “parenting problem.” Not a “Peloton problem.” This would be the case with ANY treadmill.

  • S says:

    In the video posted by the govenrment safety board, the children shown are unsupervised, the girl is walking barefoot/backwards on the treadmill, and the boy is deliberately shoving the exercise ball under the treadmill. A survey of the room shows a basket of toys strewn across the room. Bizzare that the agency arguing safety converns with the treadmill is using a video that screams no adult spupervision as the foundation for thier decision to wrn people to cease using the Tread. Do you sue a car manufacturer for leaivng the ignition fob in the car where a child may start said car and engage the transmission so that the vehilce drives though the house, injuring the occupants? I am afraid if this is use as a prosecution exhibit in a lawsuit it will not hold much weight with a jury.

  • DJ says:

    I agree 100%. The claims are truly unfounded. If I leave my patio door open and my toddler walks out the door and falls off the deck, should I hold the patio door manufacturer responsible? Should I demand the patio door be recalled or provide for an auto close feature sweeping for any obstruction before closing.

    SO 22,000 Treadmill injuries reported over the last few years! Recall them all? I think not.

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