Razer forced to pay more than $1M in refunds for its RGB 'surgical N95 respirators' that were not N95 respirators

Back in January 2021, at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Razer unveiled Project Hazel, a «surgical N95 respirator» with—of course—RGB lighting. There was just one problem: The Zephyr, as it came to be known, wasn't actually N95 rated at all, and that little oversight is going to cost the company more than $1.1 million.

Concerns about the Zephyr's supposed National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) rating surfaced a year after it was first announced, when specimens began appearing in public. Tech YouTuber Naomi Wu called out the lack of NIOSH certification, and our own hardware honcho Dave James noted in his appraisal of the device that, while it granted him a certain Bane-style drip, it is «not a medical grade mask designed to be worn in a hospital setting.»

Razer acknowledged when Project Hazel was first announced that it was not a medical grade mask, but the marketing materials billed it as a «surgical N95 respirator.» The company began removing the N95 labelling from its website once the complaints came to light, and says that it «proactively notified customers that the Zephyr was not a N95 mask, stopped sales, and refunded customers,» but that was too little, too late for the FTC, which has hit the company with a penalty of more than $1 million «to provide full refunds to consumers nationwide,» plus another $100,000 as a civil penalty.

The FTC said that while the Zephyr was promoted as an N95 mask, it was never actually submitted for testing by the FDA or NIOSH. Furthermore, the FTC alleged that «Razer only stopped the false advertising following negative press coverage and consumer outrage at the deceptive claims.»

«These businesses falsely claimed, in the midst of a global pandemic, that their face mask was the equivalent of an N95 certified respirator,» FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection director Samuel Levine said in a statement (via Kotaku). «The FTC will continue to hold accountable businesses that use false and unsubstantiated claims