Two putative Sonos class action lawsuits are pending in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, both filed in May 2025 over the company’s May 2024 mobile app redesign. Neither case has produced a settlement, class certification ruling, or motion to dismiss on the public docket, and Sonos’ terms of use contain an arbitration clause that may force some claims out of court entirely.
What the App Update Did
On May 7, 2024, Sonos released a rebuilt mobile app that it marketed as “easier, faster, and better.”1ClassAction.org. Bornemann et al v. Sonos, Inc. Complaint Customers reported the opposite. The app crashed, lagged when adjusting volume, and dropped connections to speakers. Speaker groups disconnected on their own. Sleep timers, queue management, and alarm scheduling disappeared.2Roger Wong. When the Music Stopped: Inside the Sonos App Disaster
Interim CEO Tom Conrad later acknowledged that alarms failed to trigger, surround sound systems stopped working, and users couldn’t pause music quickly enough to answer a doorbell. A rollback wasn’t possible: the redesigned app ran on a cloud-based architecture incompatible with the legacy system, so customers were stuck with it.2Roger Wong. When the Music Stopped: Inside the Sonos App Disaster
The Two Class Actions
Blair v. Sonos
Blair, et al. v. Sonos Inc., Case No. 2:25-cv-05471, was filed by Scott Blair, Ryan Bolanowski, and John Welch in the Western Division of the Central District of California. The complaint brings claims for breach of contract, violations of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the California Computer Data Access and Fraud Act, California’s False and Misleading Advertising Law and Unfair Competition Law, and two Illinois consumer protection statutes. The plaintiffs want a jury trial, declaratory and injunctive relief, and damages for themselves and the class.3Top Class Actions. Sonos Customers Say App Redesign Renders Products Unreliable or Unusable
Bornemann v. Sonos
Bornemann et al v. Sonos, Inc., Case No. 2:25-cv-04656, was filed May 23, 2025, by Pomerantz LLP on behalf of 14 named plaintiffs from multiple states, including Robert Bornemann, John Bird, and Tomas Flores. The complaint pleads consumer protection violations under the laws of California, New York, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Texas, along with federal computer fraud claims and a trespass to chattels theory.1ClassAction.org. Bornemann et al v. Sonos, Inc. Complaint
The Central Allegation
Both suits allege that Sonos knew the app was defective before releasing it. The Bornemann complaint specifically alleges that the company rushed the launch to avoid delaying a new headphone product, despite internal testing that had already flagged bugs and missing features.1ClassAction.org. Bornemann et al v. Sonos, Inc. Complaint Reporting by The Verge corroborated claims that executives ignored warnings from engineers and testers that the software wasn’t ready.4The Verge. Sonos App Redesign Controversy: The Full Story
The Arbitration Clause Could Reshape Everything
Sonos’ terms of use require customers to resolve disputes through arbitration rather than in court. That clause could complicate the class actions if Sonos moves to enforce it, though whether the company has done so in either case is not yet on the public record.
Some plaintiffs’ attorneys have skipped the class action route entirely and are pursuing mass arbitration instead, filing individual claims in bulk. Attorneys working with ClassAction.org opened an investigation and began gathering affected consumers to file arbitration claims, estimating that individual recoveries could range from $50 to $10,000 depending on the applicable state law.5ClassAction.org. Sonos App Update Arbitration Sauder Schelkopf was separately investigating potential claims as of early 2025 without having filed a complaint.6Sauder Schelkopf. Sonos May 2024 App Update Debacle Class Action Lawsuit Investigation
A Separate Investors’ Investigation
The consumer cases are not the only legal front. Pomerantz LLP disclosed in February 2025 that it was also investigating potential securities fraud claims on behalf of Sonos shareholders, looking at whether statements about the app launch misled investors. Sonos stock fell nearly 4% in one session after the company acknowledged “missteps” on October 1, 2024, and dropped another 2% over two trading days following CEO Patrick Spence’s January 2025 resignation.7PR Newswire. Pomerantz Law Firm Investigates Claims on Behalf of Investors of Sonos Inc No securities lawsuit had been filed at the time of the announcement. This investigation covers investor losses, not customer losses from the app itself.
What Affected Customers Can Do Now
There is no settlement, no claim form, and no deadline to act on. Both Blair and Bornemann are pending in the Central District of California with no motions to dismiss, class certification rulings, or settlement talks reported. If either case survives an arbitration challenge and is certified as a class, affected customers would generally receive notice through the court-approved process before any deadline to opt out or file a claim.
Customers who believe they were harmed by the May 2024 update and want to act sooner have the mass arbitration route as an alternative. Attorneys involved in that effort continue to sign up affected users, and the arbitration clause in Sonos’ terms means an individual claim can proceed regardless of what happens with the class actions in court.5ClassAction.org. Sonos App Update Arbitration