Epson is well-known for calling out brands that overstate brightness specifications in advertising.
AuKing, whose products are sold extensively by Amazon online, has become the latest to receive a public shaming after they made deceptive claims about the brightness of its cheap projectors sold on Amazon.
Last week, a US District Court ordered the brand to pay U$529,000 in damages, in a lawsuit brought on by Epson.
It found AuKing was competing unfairly against Epson “by using false, deceptive, or misleading statements of fact that misrepresent the nature, quality, and characteristics of [its] projector products.”
AuKing was further ordered to refrain from false and misleading advertising of its projectors, and isn’t allowed to sell the projectors online until the false advertising was corrected.
“With the actual lumens measured at less than 1% of AuKing’s claimed 9,500 lumens, these highly inaccurate statements deceive consumers, misrepresent the quality of projection, and ultimately impact the integrity of the industry,” Epson said.
They also noted “white brightness measured in lumens” is a key specification consumers use to make decisions when purchasing projectors.
AuKing are known for selling mini projectors online at low prices, making the Amazon Bestseller list last year.
It’s owned by Shenzhen HongHuiLianXin Technology Co., Ltd, which manufactures a wide variety of electronic products and accessories.
Vice President For Consumer Sales & Marketing at Epson America, Mike Isgrig said, “Consumers count on companies to provide reliable and accurate product information and performance specs.”
“As an ongoing issue, brands that are falsifying lumen claims are not only hurting the end-user experiences of consumers, but also the overall perception of projection viewing, damaging the industry as whole. The highly inaccurate lumen claims provided by AuKing is an example of gross negligence on the part of a brand and its commitment to truth in advertising.”
Epson has urged consumers to be aware of misleading advertising that fail to follow standardised methodology.
These standards include projection measurements defined by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and the International Committee for Display Metrology (ICDM).
The ICDM methodology defines colour brightness and white brightness separately. The ISO standard defines a methodology for projector measurements.
