Nike is providing those who’ve purchased FuelBands between January 19th, 2012 and June 17th, 2015 with gift cards. But why?
Los Angeles resident Carolyn Levin sued the companies in California in 2013, claiming FuelBand users “experience wildly inaccurate calorie burn readings” and that people who purchased the fitness band were misled. She alleges that Nike and Apple knowingly engaged in false and misleading advertising for the fitness band, which the companies launched in 2012 to much fanfare.
Nike and Apple continue to deny the allegations. They said they wanted to settle the case in order to avoid future legal costs. Nike will give people who bought the gadget $15 in cash or a $25 Nike gift card in exchange for giving up rights to bring future legal action. [source]
Now, remember – we talked about the accuracy of fitness trackers before, right?
Nike might deny the allegations of the facts, but this graph says a LOT What that basically means, is that the most expensive product – most cost for the least function – on the market at the time was, quite literally, the least accurate. Some people might like the lower values for output because it makes them think they need to work harder – as many said in this post – but I can’t help but wonder: it’s one thing to get inaccurate readings. Isn’t it another thing entirely to get inconsistent ones? If you look at those brackets, it’s pretty clear that the numbers were all over the place – but what we don’t see is how all over the place they were for each individual band.
Either way, Apple was only included in the lawsuit because the bands were sold through Apple Store locations, but since Nike was responsible for the technology, Nike is who is paying up. Visit NikeFuelBandSettlement.com to learn more, and claim your cash or gift card!
Or…you could still go and purchase a FuelBand, anyway…since they’re still for sale. For some reason.