Roku and TCL are being sued for allegedly bricking smart TVs with bad updates

• Roku and TCL are being sued after firmware updates allegedly bricked TVs.
• The class action suit claims both companies pushed updates without proper quality checks.
• Affected models include Roku Select and Plus Series, plus TCL 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-Series TVs.

A routine software update should improve your tech, not turn your main TV into a useless device. But that’s what some Roku and TCL owners say is happening. A new class-action lawsuit targets both companies, claiming recent firmware updates have bricked smart TVs.

A complaint filed in a California federal court says Roku and TCL released software updates that made some smart TV models freeze, restart over and over, or not turn on at all, according to Top Class Actions. “Bricking” is the term for when a software problem makes a device stop working completely.