Class Action Lawsuit Alleges DeMarini Baseball Bats Not Modified with Structural, Performance Upgrades as Advertised

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges several recent models of DeMarini baseball bats were falsely marketed as “materially improved,” even though the products had only minor cosmetic upgrades and offered the same performance as previous models.

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The 29-page lawsuit contends that DeMarini knowingly acquired bat certification for regulatory play in high school and college through the “cosmetic-change pathway,” which is reserved only for modifications to the appearance of already-certified bats, while claiming the baseball bats at issue were “structurally and performance enhanced.”

To certify any new bats, or those with unique structural or material changes, a manufacturer must submit the models to the Washington State University Sports Science Laboratory for testing and authorization, the case emphasizes. Per the suit, the protocol provides that the cosmetic-change pathway is available when the new bat “changes only in appearance,” in contrast to the “testing pathway” that requires new lab testing at Washington State.

Regardless of the pathway to certification, approved bats bear the same certification mark when manufactured, meaning a consumer cannot tell how a bat was approved by merely looking at it, the complaint shares.

The plaintiff is a Utah resident who, the suit says, purchased 11 distinct DeMarini models between 2021 and 2024, which ranged in price from $200 to nearly $600. While purchasing, the man relied on DeMarini’s marketing that each bat was “materially—and not merely cosmetically—improved over prior versions,” the class action lawsuit explains.

However, records obtained from Washington State University’s Sports Science Laboratory confirm that the DeMarini models at issue underwent no structural change but rather were granted approval for cosmetic changes made to already existing bats.

“This deception—pairing marketing for non-cosmetic improvements with an undisclosed Cosmetic-Change approvals—is uniform across models and presents common, class wide questions, regardless of whether Plaintiff personally purchased each model,” the lawsuit states.

The DeMarini class action lawsuit looks to cover any individual who bought a DeMarini bat in the past four years and was injured by paying a premium price for a product that did not conform to the company’s representations.

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