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$1 million overall sent out to 6,764 customers due to Razer settlement with FTC.
The Razer Zephyr mask.
Credit: Sam Machkovech
The Federal Trade Commission stated the other day it is sending out over $1 million in refunds to 6,764 customers who acquired Razer Zephyr masks that were stealthily marketed as supplying N95 security throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
The FTC took legal action against Razer in April 2024, and the gaming-hardware business consented to a settlement, consisting of a $100,000 fine and $1,071,254.33 towards a fund for customer relief. The payments are being dispersed to mask purchasers imminently, the FTC revealed the other day.
“The FTC is sending checks and PayPal payments to 6,764 consumers who purchased the deceptively marketed products. Recipients will get a full refund,” the firm stated. “Consumers should cash their check within 90 days, as indicated on the check, or redeem their PayPal payment within 30 days.”
Attempting to fend off frauds associated to the settlement, the FTC kept in mind that it “never requires people to pay money or provide account information to get a refund.” Customers with concerns can “contact the refund administrator, Simpluris, at 1-833-285-3003 or visit the FTC’s website to view frequently asked questions about the refund process.”
Razer offered the $100 Zephyr mask for just a couple of months ending in January 2022 and continued to offer replacement filters up until July 2022. Our November 2021 evaluation stated “the mask’s lack of usability in everyday life screams ‘first-generation product,'” and slammed the functions, weight circulation, and fit. The mask had integrated fans and RGB lighting.
The Razer Zephyr basic variation costing $100 included the mask and 3 sets of filters that were stated to last 3 days each. For $150, users got the mask and 33 sets of filters. Users might independently pay $30 for 10 sets of filters.
FTC: Razer understood mask wasn’t N95
The FTC declared that Razer “falsely advertised its Zephyr masks as N95 or N95-equivalent,” stating that “the company never even submitted the masks for testing to the FDA or the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the masks were never certified as N95.”
In 2021, Razer’s marketing stated the mask utilized “replaceable N95 grade filters for maximum protection.” Razer’s site stated the mask was “FDA-registered and lab-tested for 99 percent BFE [Bacteria Filtration Efficiency]” and “offers greater protection compared to standard disposable/cloth masks, and filters air both inhaled and exhaled to safeguard you and others around you.”
The FTC’s suit versus Razer stated the business “knew the Zephyr was not certified as N95 and did not provide an equivalent level of protection.” Tests carried out by a professional worked with by Razer revealed that “the assembled device failed to perform to the N95 standard of 95 percent or greater PFE [Particulate Filtration Efficiency],” the claim stated. The mask’s finest test outcomes were 86.3 percent with the fans on, 83.2 percent with the fans off, “and frequently tested much lower.”
In November 2021, tech customer Naomi Wu “criticized the Zephyr’s build and fit and noted that the mask was not NIOSH [National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health]-approved and would almost certainly be unable to get NIOSH approval due to its fit issues,” the FTC suit stated. “She especially called out Defendants for using the phrase ‘N95-grade filters,’ deeming that ‘deceptive marketing,’ noting that ‘N95 is a certification for an entire mask—not a part of a mask,’ and observing that simply using the same filter material as an N95 mask in the Zephyr did not mean that the Zephyr could provide a level of protection equivalent to an N95 mask.”
Razer officer: “Our marketing is misguiding”
A Razer executive raised issues internally after Wu’s criticism, the FTC suit stated:
In internal conversations following Ms. Wu’s tweets, Razer, Inc.’s Director of Global Public Relations acknowledged that Defendants’ claims were possibly deceptive. In a January 8, 2022 e-mail, he mentioned that “the ‘N95 grade filter’ wording that we’re using […] suggests that Zephyr is on par with officially certified N95 masks,” and asked “Do we have any certifications to back the N95-grade claim? Are we currently in the process of being officially certified/listed as a N95-grade product? Any other data that supports our marketing? The website can be confusing to read for customers, so can we boil it down to one clear statement (2-3 sentences max) on HOW Zephyr provides N95 grade protection?” He concluded: “And if we can’t do that, I’d recommend to stop using any ‘N95 grade’ claims in our marketing immediately.”
When another Razer worker reacted that the filters were checked, Razer, Inc.’s Director of Global Public Relations reframed the concern to whether “the Zephyr as a whole (not only the filters)” might declare to be N95-grade. “From a consumer and media POV, the key question here is: Does Zephyr offer the same protection as an N95 face mask? If it does, how can we prove that? And if it doesn’t, our marketing is misleading.”
Razer supplied Ars a declaration after the settlement was reached in 2015, stating that it “was never our intention to mislead anyone, and we chose to settle this matter to avoid the distraction and disruption of litigation and continue our focus on creating great products for gamers.”
“The Razer Zephyr was conceived to offer a different and innovative face covering option for the community,” the business stated at the time. “The FTC’s claims against Razer concerned limited portions of some of the statements relating to the Zephyr. More than two years ago, Razer proactively notified customers that the Zephyr was not a N95 mask, stopped sales, and refunded customers.”
FTC: Only 6 percent of United States purchases were reimbursed
The FTC claim calls into question the earlier schedule of refunds, stating that Razer “allegedly implemented” a refund policy. Razer offered refunds for less than 6 percent of Zephyr purchases in the United States, the FTC stated.
“While Defendants purport to have instituted a policy of fully refunding consumers concerned about the filters on January 9, 2022, Defendants did not promote that policy in its January emails to consumers or on its website,” the FTC stated.
That’s a recommendation to a Razer e-mail sent out to mask purchasers acknowledging that the mask “is not a medical device nor certified as an N95 mask.” The FTC stated the Razer e-mail to customers “did not invite or otherwise indicate that consumers who believed they were purchasing an N95 mask when they purchased the Zephyr could request a refund from Razer.”
Razer consumers who looked for refunds encountered numerous sort of issues, the FTC stated. Some “were told that they could not receive a refund because they were outside of Razer’s standard 14-day return policy,” while others “were told that they could not receive a full refund because they had used the disposable filters provided with the Zephyr when they bought the Zephyr in October 2022 or because the Zephyr was no longer sealed and unused,” the suit stated.
“Numerous customers were deterred from, or confused regarding their ability to, obtain full refunds because of statements by Defendants’ customer service representatives that they were ineligible for full refunds,” the suit stated.
We called Razer today and will upgrade this post if it offers more remark.
Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom market, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, high speed broadband customer affairs, lawsuit, and federal government policy of the tech market.
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