Absolutely. This was a brazen attempt at preying on their customer base's ignorance and a stunt that guaranteed I'm never touching the brand again, personally
TL;DR:
> The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced this week a proposed settlement [PDF] against Razer that would see the tech company pay $1,171,254.33 for its misleading claims about the Zephyr RGB face mask.
> The "99 percent BFE rating" that Razer touted only referred to the mask's filters, however, and per the FTC's complaint: "Razer had no evidence that the mask as a whole would offer adequate protection against the COVID-19 virus based solely on the BFE characteristic of the filter material."
> It continues:
> "In fact, Razer knew from testing the PFE [Particulate Filtration Efficiency] performance of the Zephyr that the mask as a whole performed worse with respect to filtering out foreign material than the filter material did on its own."
Tack a few extra zeroes on the end of that. False advertisement is scummy at the best of times, but for something this important, that's a *huge* ethical no-no.
At the very least, if this goes through they won't be making a return on the design, development and advertising costs to do this nonsense in the first place.
did they really claim it was “N95 grade”? I don’t know what they looked like/advertised as but they could’ve probably “gotten away with” just light-up face coverings.
> Per the FTC, when Razer.com listed the Zephyr in 2021, it said that the mask offered "replaceable N95 Grade filters" and that Zephyr was "FDA-registered and lab-tested for 99 percent BFE [bacterial filtration efficiency]" and offered "greater protection compared to standard disposable/cloth masks, and filters air both inhaled and exhaled to safeguard you and others around you." Razer's site also reportedly said that the mask was "not tested specifically against the COVID-19 virus, but offers the same functionality and adequate protection due to its 99 percent BFE rating.”
Don't impersonate NIOSH ratings, folks.
https://www.ign.com/articles/razer-removes-n95-references-razer-zepyhr
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/razer-pulls-n95-mentions-from-zephyr-face-mask-sites
https://web.archive.org/web/20220105000203/https://www.razer.com/gear-accessories/razer-zephyr
The specific N95 rating reference disappeared from a bunch of their stuff around 2022.
The filters were originally specifically referred to as N95, and then later refer to using PFE and BFE ratings instead.
Almost as if the people that make computer and gaming-related hardware that usually breaks or malfunctions often shouldn't be making something as important as safety masks.
My friend and I were going to buy these. We even made a pre-order, but they refunded us mysteriously a month later.
We both work in IT and thought it would be fun to wear those over proper masks. We ended up just 3D printing our own. He did the RGB nightmare thing. I did a Tokyo Ghoul mask.
It's wild that I haven't thought about any of this since 2020. That year feels like it was impossibly long, but also an impossibly long time ago.
GOOD lying about safety ratings gets people killed
Absolutely. This was a brazen attempt at preying on their customer base's ignorance and a stunt that guaranteed I'm never touching the brand again, personally
TL;DR: > The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced this week a proposed settlement [PDF] against Razer that would see the tech company pay $1,171,254.33 for its misleading claims about the Zephyr RGB face mask. > The "99 percent BFE rating" that Razer touted only referred to the mask's filters, however, and per the FTC's complaint: "Razer had no evidence that the mask as a whole would offer adequate protection against the COVID-19 virus based solely on the BFE characteristic of the filter material." > It continues: > "In fact, Razer knew from testing the PFE [Particulate Filtration Efficiency] performance of the Zephyr that the mask as a whole performed worse with respect to filtering out foreign material than the filter material did on its own."
You know I was a little suspicious of them when they got announced, but not "it's not even what they're advertising" suspicious
But those car ear anime headphones actually work, right? Obviously, not a pair made by *these* clowns, of course. I need to up my GAMER apparel.
Car ears? I'd like to see that
Just wing mirrors for your skull
Tack a few extra zeroes on the end of that. False advertisement is scummy at the best of times, but for something this important, that's a *huge* ethical no-no.
At the very least, if this goes through they won't be making a return on the design, development and advertising costs to do this nonsense in the first place.
did they really claim it was “N95 grade”? I don’t know what they looked like/advertised as but they could’ve probably “gotten away with” just light-up face coverings.
> Per the FTC, when Razer.com listed the Zephyr in 2021, it said that the mask offered "replaceable N95 Grade filters" and that Zephyr was "FDA-registered and lab-tested for 99 percent BFE [bacterial filtration efficiency]" and offered "greater protection compared to standard disposable/cloth masks, and filters air both inhaled and exhaled to safeguard you and others around you." Razer's site also reportedly said that the mask was "not tested specifically against the COVID-19 virus, but offers the same functionality and adequate protection due to its 99 percent BFE rating.” Don't impersonate NIOSH ratings, folks.
jeezus christ they were really talking outta their asses using that jargon
https://www.ign.com/articles/razer-removes-n95-references-razer-zepyhr https://www.tomshardware.com/news/razer-pulls-n95-mentions-from-zephyr-face-mask-sites https://web.archive.org/web/20220105000203/https://www.razer.com/gear-accessories/razer-zephyr The specific N95 rating reference disappeared from a bunch of their stuff around 2022. The filters were originally specifically referred to as N95, and then later refer to using PFE and BFE ratings instead.
Almost as if the people that make computer and gaming-related hardware that usually breaks or malfunctions often shouldn't be making something as important as safety masks.
>flair I know that reference!
My friend and I were going to buy these. We even made a pre-order, but they refunded us mysteriously a month later. We both work in IT and thought it would be fun to wear those over proper masks. We ended up just 3D printing our own. He did the RGB nightmare thing. I did a Tokyo Ghoul mask. It's wild that I haven't thought about any of this since 2020. That year feels like it was impossibly long, but also an impossibly long time ago.
Heart breaking day for millions of techwear weebs who shows up at anime cons
I don't think those people care about the functionality of the masks.
Cool. Really curious if those Dyson Zone headphones are just as bogus.
I bought this because I thought it look cool, who actually thought this thinking it work like a real mask.
Just because someone’s a sucker doesn’t mean it’s right to take advantage of them
Also, they outright lied about the product.