The lawsuit concerns Western Digital customers in the United States who purchased certain Western Digital hard drives with SMR technology.
Plaintiffs alleged that Western Digital represented its “WD Red NAS” hard drives to be designed and suitable for use in NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices because the drives use “SMR” (Shingled Magnetic Recording) technology. Nicholas Malone, Chris Ayers, James Backus, Brian Conway, David Eaton, Steven Gravel, James Raaymakers, and Tod Weitzel are the plaintiffs in the filed class action lawsuit against Western Digital. The operative complaint in this case is available on this website. Western Digital denies these allegations, denies that SMR is inferior technology, or that it did anything wrong. Defendant contends that its SMR-based Red NAS drives were designed and extensively tested for use in the applications for which they were marketed, and Western Digital believes that the drives perform well in, and are suitable for use in, NAS devices employed in appropriate applications and workloads.
Plaintiffs and Western Digital have now agreed to a settlement to resolve this lawsuit, as described below. The Court has not decided whether Plaintiffs or Western Digital are correct. By agreeing to the Settlement, neither Western Digital nor Plaintiffs make any admissions regarding the merits of the allegations, claims, or defenses in this case.
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California is overseeing this lawsuit. The lawsuit is known as Malone v. Western Digital Corporation, Case No. 5:20-cv-03584-NC.