Epson Competitor Falsely Claiming Brightness Ratings for Projectors: Lawsuit

Projector manufacturer AWOL Vision’s false advertising will continue to cause consumer confusion and deception “to the irreparable injury of Epson” without a court order enjoining its conduct, said a Lanham Act lawsuit (docket 9:24-cv-80583) Monday in U.S. District Court for Southern Florida in West Palm Beach.

Epson, a “market leader” in the projector market, prides itself on achieving high customer satisfaction ratings as a result of “precise testing equipment and procedures,” said the complaint. The Japan-based company has spent “millions of dollars and significant time and effort in advertising” promoting and developing its brand, the complaint said.

AWOL Vision, based in Delray Beach, Florida, is Epson’s direct competitor in the portable consumer projector market, selling its projectors from its website, its physical store and e-commerce sites such as Amazon and Walmart, said the complaint.

The complaint showed AWOL product advertisements for 4K laser projectors with peak lumen values of 2600 and 3000 “prominently displayed,” said the complaint. The defendant makes the peak lumen value statements “recognizing the importance of brightness to a consumer” as it looks to gain traction in the U.S. market, it said. But the company is “purposefully and deceptively inflating the brightness specification of its projectors,” alleged the complaint.

Epson tested several of AWOL’s projectors, and on each test, the competitor’s projector “tested significantly below its advertised brightness value” and created “significant confusion in the marketplace,” alleged the complaint. As a result, consumers who bought the defendant’s projectors have been “misled and deceived” by its “false product labeling, descriptions, and advertisements,” it said. Consumers that have bought AWOL projectors receive units with “drastically lower performance outputs,” it said.

AWOL’s false and misleading product labeling, descriptions and advertising “are damaging to Epson” and to the “consuming public,” said the complaint. The “probable, and foreseeable result” of AWOL’s marketing has been to cause “confusion, deception and mistake in the consumer projector marketplace as a whole, to deprive Epson of business and goodwill” and to injure Epson’s relationships with existing and prospective customers, it said.

After a consumer has a “poor experience” with an AWOL projector that has an “improperly inflated lumen value of ‘3,000 lumen,’ she will be unaware that its 3000 lumen projector is “not representative of the performance of a true 3000 lumen projector,” the complaint alleged. “This causes irreparable harm to Epson as well as to the entire portable projector marketplace,” it said.

In addition to Lanham Act claims, Epson asserts violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. Epson seeks temporary, preliminary and permanent injunctive relief prohibiting AWOL and its distributors and retailers from selling its products, engaging in false and misleading advertising regarding its projectors and ordering removal of all products from its website, said the complaint. It seeks an order requiring AWOL to correct “any erroneous impression” consumers derived from the qualities of its projectors via “corrective advertising.” It also seeks damages, AWOL’s profits obtained as a result of its conduct, exemplary and punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, and pre- and post-judgment interest.