The Sharper Image get its edge filed off.

I saw the usual Sharper Image ad for the Ionic Breeze in the Sunday paper “big pile o’throwaway ads” today and wondered if the mainstream media had reported on what a piece of er, umm, plastic the Ionic Breeze is. Here’s a report:

Sharper Image, Consumer Reports Settle Ionic Breeze Flap
By David Kravets, February 10, 2005, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - The Sharper Image Corp. has agreed to pay the publisher of Consumer Reports $525,000 to cover the magazine's legal fees and costs from successfully defending itself against the specialty retailer's libel lawsuit.

The settlement, announced Thursday, comes three months after a federal judge here tossed a lawsuit alleging the magazine printed false and malicious articles in 2002 and 2003 about the company's Ionic Breeze Quadra Silent Air Purifier.

Consumers Union of United States Inc. has stood by its magazine's published reports, which said its tests of the heavily advertised machine "found almost no measurable reduction in airborne particles."

U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney last year tossed the case, ruling San Francisco-based Sharper Image's "claims against Consumers Union arise from acts in furtherance of free speech" and that "Sharper Image has not demonstrated a reasonable probability that any of the challenged statements were false."

Sharper Image appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but withdrew the challenge and agreed to end the case. Under a California law, defendants of First Amendment speech lawsuits who prevail are entitled to legal fees and costs.

"The message is clear. If you file a meritless lawsuit just because you want to silence a fair, honest review by Consumer Reports, you'll pay," said Jim Guest, president of Consumers Union, the Yonkers, N.Y.-based publisher.

More than 2 million of the $350 units have been sold.

E. Robert Wallach, Sharper Image's attorney, said Thursday the articles were misleading, but decided to end the case because the purifiers are selling well.

"Sharper Image made a business decision in recognition of the fact that the Ionic Breeze remains the dominant indoor air purifier and sales continue at a brisk pace," he said. "That is the most effective response to the misleading and, in the opinion of Sharper Image, deceptive conclusions announced by Consumer Reports."

In a July hearing, Wallach told the judge that Consumer Reports' two articles compared the Ionic Breeze, which uses no fan, to other machines that have fans and clean the air quicker.

The case is Sharper Image v. Consumers Union, 04-17483.

Why is this interesting? Well, for starters, it’s proof of the old adage that there’s a sucker born every minute. Sharper Image decides that they’re not going to appeal because "Sharper Image made a business decision in recognition of the fact that the Ionic Breeze remains the dominant indoor air purifier and sales continue at a brisk pace," he said. "That is the most effective response to the misleading and, in the opinion of Sharper Image, deceptive conclusions announced by Consumer Reports."

I’m a Consumer Reports subscriber. Consumer Reports reported in 2002 that the Ionic Breeze was basically worthless. Sharper Image understandably got their shorts in a knot and pointed out that the CR “tests, based on the industry standard for measuring clean-air delivery rate (CADR), were inadequate. Sharper Image said that the Ionic Breeze technology is “vastly different” from that of other air cleaners and would fare better in a longer test.”

In 2003, the Ionic Breeze got their longer test. CR hired two independent experts, professors from NYU and UC-Berkley. The Ionic breeze and a Honeywell product using similar technology were compared to two other air cleaners using fans. The experts concluded that even over time, the fan-powered cleaners on low were 25 times more effective than the precipitator-type Ionic Breeze on high (and the Honeywell).

The Freidrich is priced higher, the Whirlpool is lower, but they are 25 times more effective! 25 times! Then again, Sharper Image gives you free shipping. What a deal!

Don’t you just love it when the good guys win one? Consumer Reports, to which you should subscribe, is here.