The Federal Trade Fee has sued a California-based mostly gentle bulb producer and its principals to cease them from misleading customers by exaggerating the sunshine output and life expectancy of its Mild Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs. As part of the FTC’s continuing work to cease misleading promoting, the agency filed a complaint charging that since 2008, Lights of America, Inc. has overstated the sunshine output and life expectancy of its LED bulbs on packages and in brochures. The company also charges that Lights of America misled shoppers about how the brightness of its LED bulbs compares to traditional incandescent lights. Manufacturers have recently begun selling LED bulbs for family use because they are a better-effectivity, longer-lasting various to incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs. Although the initial worth tag may be larger, properly-designed and manufactured LED bulbs save on energy costs and last much longer than other types of gentle bulbs. The FTC alleges that in many situations, Lights of America’s LED bulbs produced significantly less gentle, as measured in lumens, than the corporate claimed in its promotional materials.
For instance, EcoLight products one bulb was promoted as producing 90 lumens of mild output, however Lights of America’s own tests showed it produced only forty three lumens. Also, EcoLight products in lots of circumstances, Lights of America deceptively in contrast the brightness of its LED mild bulbs with incandescent bulbs, the FTC alleges. For instance, the agency claimed that one in every of its LED lantern bulbs might exchange a 40-watt incandescent bulb. Nonetheless, while the everyday 40-watt incandescent bulb produces about four hundred lumens, the Lights of America LED bulb produced solely 74 lumens. Moreover, the FTC complaint states that in many situations, Lights of America’s LED bulbs would not last as long as the company’s promotional supplies stated they'd. In a single case, EcoLight solutions for EcoLight reviews instance, the firm said that one in every of its LED recessed bulbs would last 30,000 hours. Unbiased tests, nonetheless, confirmed that the bulb wouldn't last so long as claimed as a result of it misplaced eighty % of its mild output after solely 1,000 hours. In filing the complaint, the FTC is in search of a everlasting injunction to cease the defendants’ allegedly illegal conduct, in addition to financial redress for shoppers who purchased the deceptively labeled EcoLight products.
The Fee vote authorizing the filing of the complaint was 5-0. It was filed in the U.S. District Court docket for the Central District of California on September 7, 2010 in opposition to Lights of America, EcoLight products Inc.