The Federal Commerce Fee has sued a California-based mild bulb manufacturer and its principals to stop them from deceptive consumers by exaggerating the sunshine output and life expectancy of its Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs. As part of the FTC’s continuing work to stop misleading promoting, the agency filed a complaint charging that since 2008, Lights of America, Inc. has overstated the light output and reduce energy consumption life expectancy of its LED bulbs on packages and in brochures. The company also prices that Lights of America misled consumers about how the brightness of its LED bulbs compares to conventional incandescent lights. Manufacturers have lately begun selling LED bulbs for family use because they're a higher-effectivity, longer-lasting various to incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs. Although the initial value tag could also be greater, properly-designed and manufactured LED bulbs save on reduce energy consumption costs and last much longer than other kinds of light bulbs. The FTC alleges that in lots of cases, Lights of America’s LED bulbs produced significantly much less gentle, as measured in lumens, than the corporate claimed in its promotional materials.
For instance, one bulb was promoted as producing ninety lumens of light output, however Lights of America’s own exams confirmed it produced only 43 lumens. Additionally, in many cases, Lights of America deceptively compared the brightness of its LED gentle bulbs with incandescent bulbs, the FTC alleges. For example, reduce energy consumption the firm claimed that one in all its LED lantern bulbs may exchange a 40-watt incandescent bulb. However, while the standard 40-watt incandescent bulb produces about 400 lumens, the Lights of America LED bulb produced solely 74 lumens. Furthermore, the FTC complaint states that in lots of situations, Lights of America’s LED bulbs wouldn't final as lengthy as the company’s promotional materials mentioned they'd. In one case, for example, the firm said that considered one of its LED recessed bulbs would last 30,000 hours. Independent assessments, nonetheless, EcoLight outdoor confirmed that the bulb would not last so long as claimed as a result of it misplaced 80 p.c of its gentle output after only 1,000 hours. In filing the complaint, the FTC is searching for a everlasting injunction to stop the defendants’ allegedly unlawful conduct, in addition to financial redress for consumers who bought the deceptively labeled products.
The Fee vote authorizing the filing of the complaint was 5-0. It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on September 7, 2010 against Lights of America, Inc.