According to a judgement obtained by AFP on Friday, an Italian court has ordered Dutch giant Philips to replace defective sleep apnea breathing devices by April 30.
According to the March 30 judgment, the court in Milan ordered the struggling firm facing a large international recall to expedite its replacement of the faulty equipment, which should have been done by December 31.
Two Italian consumer organizations sued Philips on behalf of the 100,000 Italians who used the machines to treat sleep apnea, a disorder in which breathing stops and starts during sleep.
According to the organizations, 55,000 people in Italy still await a replacement from Philips.
If the replacements are not done by April 30, the corporation will be fined 20,000 euros per day, the court ordered.
Plaintiffs’ lawyer Stefano Bertone told the newspaper Il Corriere della Sera that they had demonstrated “that Philips was fully aware of the problem at least since 2014, but waited until after 2021 to intervene.”
The global recall of Philips’ breathing equipment, which began in 2021, contributed to the company’s 2022 loss of 1.6 billion euros ($1.75 billion). In the United States, the firm is the subject of ongoing investigations and litigation. Philips announced another 6,000 job cuts in late January, on top of 4,000 already announced cuts.
The devices expose users to the risk of breathing potentially hazardous foam. Philips did not reply quickly to a request for comment.
