If you let your gaming brain win and buy an N95 mask from Razer, the company best known for its keyboards and computer mice, then you may be entitled to compensation – well, at least a refund. The Federal Trade Commission announced on Monday that reached a settlement with the gaming hardware company to shell out $1 million to compensate people who bought the Razer Zephyr, a short-lived “N95” mask that the company sold during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the terms of the agreement, the FTC he said would send checks and PayPal payments with full refunds to the 6,764 consumers who purchased the mask. According to the agency, consumers who purchased Zephyr will have 90 days to cash their check after receiving it or 30 days to accept PayPal payment. The FTC will send payments based on records received from Razer and does not require consumers to file a claim.
The payout represents the end of a surprisingly thorough saga in which the FTC slammed Razer for falsely advertising its Zephyr masks. The company first began offering masks in 2021, claiming the product is “FDA registered and lab tested to 99 percent BFE [Bacteria Filtration Efficiency]” and offered “greater protection compared to standard disposable/cloth masks” thanks to its “replaceable N95 grade filters for maximum protection.”
Turns out not so much. According to the FTC’s investigation, Razer never submitted Zephyr masks to the FDA or the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for testing, and they were never certified as N95 grade. Instead, the company ran tests through a third party, but even those results showed the masks failed. To qualify as an N95 grade, a mask must achieve 95% or greater particle filtration efficiency. Third-party tests showed the Zephyr max reached 86.3% in the fan-on area, and “often tested much lower.”
Despite knowing this, Razer still decided to market the mask as the N95, which is a pretty big no-no. The company sold the masks for several months ranging from the latter half of 2021 to early 2022, charging $100 a piece before pulling the product as it began to gain attention.
Although the company notified customers after the fact that the Zephyr “is not a medical device nor is it certified as an N95 mask,” it did not inform those customers that refunds were possible. As a result, the FTC found that less than 6% of Zephyr purchases got their money back—something it aims to correct with this settlement. Better late than never.