SituationNew Brand Design (NBD) Inc has designed and built Dualplex 360, a tablet computer that can easily convert into a laptop by flipping the screen over and locking it in place against theback of the keyboard. Dualplex 360 went on the market six months ago and has been very popular in Western Europe, North America, and South Africa. Unfortunately, consumers have reported products that were shipped to the U.S. have overheated, ignited, and sometimes burned users and damaged property. NBD’s research and development (R&D) team was fully aware of the overheating problem when putting Dualplex 360 on the market. They have performed a cost-benefit analysis and determined that payouts from lawsuits would be less than the cost of redesigning and manufacturing a new laptop. The R&D team covered up the defect and inserted a disclaimer excluding warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular use, and express and implied warranty. The disclaimer also included a warning message not to leave the tablet plugged into a power source after it is fully charged. The instruction did not contain warnings relating to overheating or other dangers. To date, the majority of the consumers have ignored the warning and left their tablets charging after the battery became full (Dualplex 360 – UMGC, 2020).The CEO of Colossal Company, Janet Yoon, has instructed an international task force to address the following concerns: Type of Claims that the U.S. customers could file in court against NBD and the arguments they can make for each element of their claims. The types of damages could be awarded under any of the claims mentioned in the previous question.2
