Garmin Hit With Class Action Over Promises of ‘Lifetime’ Maps (1)

Garmin USA Inc. is using misleading advertisement to sell its portable navigational devices, according to a new federal lawsuit.

Garmin promises that it will provide free lifetime maps and traffic updates for various models of its devices, including Drivesmart, Nüvi, Drive, and DriveAssist. But this marketing is deceptive, according to Francis McVetty.

Garmin, as the company’s warranty terms indicate, will only provide these updates for the useful life of the product, defined as the period over which the device has sufficient memory capacity to receive and utilize updates and is capable of operating without major repairs. This lets Garmin arbitrarily ...