Judge Approves Settlement of Philips CPAP Medical Monitoring Lawsuit

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all federal Philips CPAP lawsuits has approved a $25 million class action settlement, which will provide for medical monitoring of individuals who were exposed to toxic foam while using a number of different breathing machines recalled in 2021.

The class action agreement is separate from a $1.1 billion Philips CPAP injury settlement the manufacturer announced in April 2024, which will provide financial compensation for individuals already diagnosed with various forms of cancer, lung damage or other side effects linked to breathing in small foam particles that were released into the machines’ air pathways. In addition, Philips previously agreed to  pay $445 million to resolve a CPAP economic loss class action settlement in September 2023.

All of the claims were filed in the wake of a massive Philips CPAP recall first announced in July 2021, which impacted millions of devices sold over the past few decades that contained a polyester-based polyurethane (PE-PUR) foam, which was intended to help reduce noise and vibrations while the machines were used at night. However, the foam has now been found to degrade and release toxic chemicals, causing tens of thousands of individuals to develop severe and potentially life-threatening health problems.

U.S. District Court Judge Joy Flowers Conti has been presiding over the centralized pretrial proceedings for all federal Philips CPAP recall lawsuits since October 2021, presiding over coordinated discovery and preparing for a series of early trial dates when the manufacturer reached a series of settlement agreements earlier this year to resolve the litigation.

The Court held a final fairness hearing to evaluate the medical monitoring settlement on October 30, which will cover all individuals living throughout the United States.

“The court reviewed all 257 objections individually on the record and considered the factors required by Rule 23 and applicable precedent. The court considered the fairness and reasonableness of the motion for counsel fees and expenses and service awards,” Judge Conti wrote in a text-only order. “The court concluded that the class requirements were met and that the settlement was fair, reasonable and adequate.”

While most of the individual injury and class action lawsuits over recalled Philips CPAP devices have been resolved, the company still faces a trial next year over lawsuits filed between it and SoClean Inc., a company that has manufactured and sold devices designed to clean CPAP machines, which may have accelerated the breakdown of sound abatement foam inside the Philips machines.

To be effective at cleaning CPAP devices, SoClean machines use high levels of ozone gas, which has been linked to health risks for consumers, as well as concerns the gas may damage the CPAP machines themselves.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a SoClean recall in November 2023, after determining that more than 7,400 complaints had been linked to the ozone cleaning devices, including adverse event reports involving mildew smells, excessive ozone emissions, coughing and other health problems.