Court Orders Phone Seller to Pay 630,000 Yuan After Charging Fire Severely Burns Woman

A woman was severely burned when a smartphone caught fire as she charged it beside her bed while watching short videos, and a Dongguan court has ordered the seller to pay 60 percent of her losses.

The fire broke out in a rented room in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, on February 4, 2024. Although the blaze covered only about 1 square meter, it spread quickly to nearby items and seriously injured the tenant, surnamed Chen, the court said.

Chen told investigators that she bought the smartphone from an e-commerce platform in August 2021. She fell asleep while using it during charging. The phone later suffered a battery thermal runaway, waking her as flames spread. She escaped but suffered permanent injuries.

A forensic examination of the phone and charger remnants found typical signs of lithium-battery thermal runaway and identified it as the direct cause of the fire. Chen suffered extensive burns. Her hand, torso and limb injuries were assessed as two Level 6 disabilities, while her facial burns were assessed as a Level 9 disability. Her initial medical expenses exceeded 300,000 yuan (US$44,284), with further surgery and rehabilitation expected.

Chen sought more than 1.18 million yuan in compensation from the phone seller, the landlord and a sublandlord, citing the defective battery and inadequate fire-safety management at the rental property.

The first-instance court assessed her total losses at 1,057,518.91 yuan. It assigned Chen 40 percent of the responsibility for charging and using the phone beside her bed, while holding the seller 60 percent responsible for selling a defective product. The seller was ordered to pay 634,511.35 yuan. The sublandlord was also assigned supplementary liability for up to 10 percent of the seller's unpaid debt.

The seller appealed, arguing that the phone manufacturer should have been added to the case and challenging the findings on the phone's authenticity, battery failure and the rental property's wiring. The Dongguan Intermediate People's Court upheld the original ruling, finding that the first trial was lawful and that the existing forensic examination was sufficient.

The court said consumers may seek compensation from either a product manufacturer or seller when a defect causes injury. The seller may separately seek compensation from the manufacturer if responsibility is later found to lie in production.

The court advised the public not to use phones or power banks while charging, charge them on beds or leave them plugged in overnight, or place them near bedding and other flammable materials. It also urged sellers to maintain purchase and sales records and landlords to provide fire-safety equipment and regularly check for hazards.