Certainly some corporate defendants deserve to take it in the shorts. Judge Easterbrook, in affirming a well-deserved $16 million FTC fine against a late-night infomercial purveyor of fraud, opines:
For the Q-Ray Ionized Bracelet, by contrast, all statements about how the product works—Q-Rays, ionization, enhancing the flow of bio-energy, and the like—are blather. Defendants might as well have said: “Beneficent creatures from the 17th Dimension use this bracelet as a beacon to locate people who need pain relief, and whisk them off to their homeworld every night to provide help in ways unknown to our science.”
FTC v. QT, Inc. (via Lattman).
6 Comments
That’s a good ruling, but one can’t help but wonder who falls for such fanciful claims about a product.
And, the “fine” is apparently a disgorgement of profits, ill-gotten. But, what I like is that (presumably) since the government brought the suit on behalf of consumers, private plaintiff lawyers don’t walk off as multi-millionaires after carving 1/3 or more from the fine/judgment.
Not all infomercials are fraud.
I remember channel surfing one night and finding a refreshingly honest woman telling viewers that her product, “…will literally take years off your life!”
What more could a lawyer ask for?
He spends much of the opinion addressing the Q-Ray company’s defense that the Q-Ray Ionized Bracelet is legit because it exhibits the placebo effect.
The only thing I can say is that the lawyers for Q-Ray give new meaning to the word chutzpah. Their argument adds insult to injury. Did they really believe that the judge would be stupid enough to fall for such a defense?
What, you mean you’ve never been snatched by the 17th Dimensioners?
The Judge is wrong.
It is immoral to let a sucker keep his money.
Don’t worry the judge was not acting immorally, the money will go to the FTC.