More than 6,700 people bought the false N95 face mask from Razer - and now they're getting refunds

rockpapershotgun.com:

Thousands of people who bought the "N95-grade" Razer Zephyr face mask during the Covid-19 pandemic are finally getting a refund for the dodgy mask, months after US agencies ordered a $1 million payout from the gaming hardware company. The Federal Trade Commission are sending out cheques as we speak. I don't know if I should be glad that a trading standards agency has done its job, or depressed that over 6,700 people thought this mask looked good enough to buy in the first place.

Razer launched their Zephyr face mask during the pandemic, advertising it as a medical-grade N95 mask capable of filtering out the harmful virus. But that was false: the mask was never proven able to do that. It wasn't even submitted to the federal agencies in the United States who could deem it worthy of the important N95 badge of reliability. In other words, this was a case of "deceptively" advertising a false product, say the Federal Trade Commission, who this week are sending out the refunds in the form of cheques and PayPal transfers to 6,764 people who bought the mask.

"Recipients will get a full refund," say the FTC in a post explaining that the money is rolling out (as spotted by Ars Technica). "Consumers should cash their check within 90 days, as indicated on the check, or redeem their PayPal payment within 30 days."

The RGB-lit face mask was tried out by tech reviewer Naomi Wu when it first appeared in November 2021. She pointed out the mask's weird design in a video titled "The Razer Zephyr is completely useless - but it has potential". She argued that it was not medically certified as an N95 mask, even if it used the same components as other masks that had passed through the official grading process. Razer's PR department saw the reviewer's remarks and went into something of a tailspin, with the PR chief sending internal emails to ask about the mask, recognising that the unsubstantiated claims were a big problem.

"Do we have any certifications to back the N95-grade claim? Are we