On Thursday, 23 May 2019 09:33:33 UTC+1, Mike wrote:
On 5/22/2019 7:26 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Wed, 22 May 2019 17:52:10 -0700, Mike wrote:

Conspiracy theory notwithstanding...

I just hate it when someone ruins a perfectly good conspiracy theory.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained
by stupidity. Hanlon's Razor.

Standby/parasitic current drain of various flashlights (including
leakage current and estimated battery life):
https://lygte-info.dk/info/standbyCurrent%20UK.html

I suggest that some designer made a bad decision to use a cheap
part to manage the flashlight modes. Some manager made an uninformed
decision to remarket the result. Everybody saved a penny, except the user.
Caught with their pants down, some vendors are now advertising flashlights
with zero parasitic drain.
It's unlikely that Duracell had any malicious intent in this.

There is already a class action suit to prove otherwise:

"Duracell Class Action Says LED Flashlights Drain Batteries Quickly"
https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/consumer-products/877506-duracell-class-action-says-led-flashlights-drain-batteries-quickly/
https://www.classaction.org/blog/in-the-dark-allegedly-defective-duracell-led-flashlights-drain-batteries-when-turned-off-class-action-lawsuit-claims
https://www.classaction.org/media/siddle-et-al-v-the-duracell-company-et-al.pdf
(12.4MB)
The case seeks to cover a proposed nationwide class of
consumers who bought Duracells 250, 300 or 350 LED
flashlight models from Duracell, Costco, Home Depot or
Amazon during the to-be-defined claim period.

You can sue anybody for anything. Sometimes you even win.
BUT
I don't expect anybody at Duracell ever sat down with the evil
intent to sell defective flashlights as a means to increase battery sales..

Usually companies are busy looking for the next wheeze, the next way to sell more product. And we surely know that a lot of these ideas are knowingly not in the consumer's interest.

It's much more likely that someone in purchasing decided they could
make a buck on flashlights and did zero evaluation.

a company that size with a large reputation doing zero evaluation? Not credible

I skimmed part of the attached links.

Should they be punished for not recalling them? Probably, but what
is the appropriate punishment? We all have stuff that performs
less than expected. Where do you draw the line?

afaik parasitic drain is not a crime. I don't know any law that prohibits it.