Canon, the world renowned camera maker, is under fire in China, with consumers launching a lawsuit against it because of substandard digital products.

Up to 36 consumers filed the case in the Beijing Dongcheng district court Tuesday, demanding a full refund of the substandard S1IS, a high-end digital camera which they claim has a defective LCD display.

Two more consumers joined the indictment Thursday, and the number is likely to keep rising, said Zhang Qiujun, attorney for the plaintiffs.

Pan Ying, who works for the public relations department of Canon (China) Co. Inc., said the company has not yet heard from the court, and will take a positive attitude in trying to sort out the matter, according to a report in Thursday's China Securities Journal.

Before the indictment was issued, Canon admitted that as many as 25 product lines had problems and promised to repair the troubled ones. But their offer was rebuffed by the unhappy consumers who were skeptical of the company's ability to fully eradicate the defects.

It's good to see that Chinese consumers are now actively defending themselves against well-known foreign brands, because it hardly ever used to happen in the past, said Zhang.

Source: Xinhua