Boppy Newborn Lounger Lawsuits

Plaintiffs are filing individual lawsuits against The Boppy Company for compensation for damages incurred after their children died while using the Boppy Newborn Lounger.

Plaintiffs allege that the company knew about the dangers of the Boppy Newborn Lounger but didn’t recall the product right away. The company denies the allegations but does admit that in September 2021, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall for all models of the Boppy Newborn Lounger.

People are suing The Boppy Company because the Boppy Newborn Lounger, a type of Boppy Pillow, may cause suffocation if a baby rolls over, falls asleep or is placed in the lounger in a position that may block the airway.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission stresses that pillow-like products, including the Boppy Nursing Pillow and Boppy Newborn Lounger, are often used to babyproof areas infants play in, but they are not safe for sleep. Infants should sleep on a flat, firm surface.

Babies may fall asleep easily in the lounger, and the Boppy lounger design doesn’t prevent the baby from rolling over or sleeping in a position that may block their airway. At least 10 babies have died from suffocation after using the Boppy Newborn Lounger.

The reported suffocation deaths occurred from December 2015 to November 2021, with two occurring after The Boppy Company issued a recall in September 2021. According to lawyers, despite knowing the risk of suffocation, Boppy failed to change the design of its loungers earlier to prevent further deaths.

In 2021, the CPSC published a Boppy Newborn Loungers recall notice, causing a removal of the products from stores and official store websites. However, the recalled loungers continued to be for sale on Facebook Marketplace.

While Meta, the parent company behind Facebook, worked to resolve the issue, the CPSC issued a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of the social media platform. On June 6, 2023, the CPSC reminded Zuckerberg that sales of these items are illegal and urged him to “prevent the sale of recalled and violative consumer products on Facebook Marketplace.”

Meta responded to the CPSC that it has policies in place to stop the sale of recalled items and that when they find a listing that violates this policy, they remove it. To date, Meta has not responded with a concrete timeline regarding removing all Facebook Marketplace listings selling the Boppy Newborn Lounger, despite the CPSC requesting a response by June 30, 2023.

In September 2021, The Boppy Company issued a recall for Boppy Newborn Loungers, covering the 3.3 million Newborn Loungers sold online and in stores, including Walmart, Target and Amazon.com. The CPSC issued its Safety Notice regarding the recall because the products are still for sale in secondary online markets. The 2021 recall doesn’t include other Boppy pillows, such as the Boppy Nursing Pillow, but in 2019 the company issued a recall for its Boppy Infant Head and Neck Support Accessories.

The Boppy Newborn Lounger can be dangerous because babies can “suffocate if they roll, move, or are placed on the lounger in a position that obstructs breathing, or roll off the lounger onto an external surface, such as an adult pillow or soft bedding that obstructs breathing,” according to the CPSC recall notification.

The 2019 recall of Boppy Infant Head and Neck Accessories covered the 14,000 products sold to that date. According to the recall notification from CSPC, the head support cushion can be overstuffed, leading a baby’s head to tilt too far forward and increase the risk of suffocation.

If your infant was seriously injured while using an Original, Preferred or Pottery Barn Kids Boppy Newborn Lounger, you may be eligible to file a Boppy Newborn Lounger lawsuit. If your baby died after using the lounger, you may file a wrongful death lawsuit. Damages you may recover include medical and funeral expenses and pain and suffering.

To find out your eligibility, you will need to contact an experienced product liability and wrongful death lawyer. Before you talk to the lawyer, make sure you have all the information about your Boppy Newborn Lounger and any documentation to do with your claim. This includes receipts or other proof of purchase, photos of the product and your child’s medical records.

The recalled Boppy Newborn Lounger products were sold online and in stores from January 2004 to September 2021. You also may have bought your Boppy Newborn Lounger through a secondary online market, like Facebook Marketplace. A lawyer may be able to help you with documentation of purchase if you don’t already have it.

To date there hasn’t been a Boppy Newborn Lounger settlement, and lawyers are still investigating plaintiffs’ claims. There are multiple cases filed against the makers of Boppy Newborn Loungers, but courts have set no trial dates.

Legal experts note that compensation for damages could reach millions of dollars, but that individual case details will impact settlements. It is unlikely that the courts will compile the different cases going to trial into multidistrict litigation unless many more plaintiffs come forward. In either situation, court proceedings can take months or years to finalize. An experienced lawyer can advise you on the timeline and settlement expectations for your case.