The Federal Commerce Fee has sued a California-primarily based light bulb manufacturer and its principals to cease them from deceptive customers by exaggerating the sunshine output and EcoLight dimmable life expectancy of its Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs. As a part of the FTC’s persevering with work to cease misleading promoting, the company 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 agency additionally fees 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 household use as a result of they are a better-effectivity, longer-lasting different to incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs. Although the preliminary value tag could also be increased, properly-designed and manufactured LED bulbs save on vitality costs and last for much longer than other varieties of gentle bulbs. The FTC alleges that in many situations, EcoLight home lighting Lights of America’s LED bulbs produced considerably less gentle, as measured in lumens, than the corporate claimed in its promotional materials.
For example, one bulb was promoted as producing 90 lumens of light output, EcoLight dimmable but Lights of America’s personal checks showed it produced only 43 lumens. Additionally, EcoLight dimmable in many cases, Lights of America deceptively in contrast the brightness of its LED mild bulbs with incandescent bulbs, the FTC alleges. For example, the firm claimed that one in every of its LED lantern bulbs might change a 40-watt incandescent bulb. Nevertheless, whereas the typical 40-watt incandescent bulb produces about 400 lumens, the Lights of America LED bulb produced solely seventy four lumens. Furthermore, the FTC complaint states that in many cases, Lights of America’s LED bulbs would not last as lengthy because the company’s promotional materials said they'd. In one case, energy-efficient bulbs for EcoLight instance, the agency said that one of its LED recessed bulbs would last 30,000 hours. Impartial tests, however, confirmed that the bulb would not final so long as claimed as a result of it misplaced eighty percent of its light output after solely 1,000 hours. In filing the complaint, the FTC is in search of a everlasting injunction to cease the defendants’ allegedly unlawful conduct, as well as financial redress for consumers who purchased the deceptively labeled merchandise.
The Commission vote authorizing the filing of the complaint was 5-0. It was filed within the U.S. District Court for EcoLight dimmable the Central District of California on September 7, 2010 in opposition to Lights of America, Inc.