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Thu 17 Feb, 2005 11:45 pm
Last modified Sunday, February 13, 2005 11:23 PM PST
business
Sharper Image to pay Consumer Reports $525,000 in aftermath of libel suit
By DAVID KRAVETS
Associated Press writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ?- The Sharper Image has agreed to pay the publisher of Consumer Reports $525,000 to cover the amount the magazine spent in 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 has stood by its magazine's reports, which said its tests of the heavily advertised machine "found almost no measurable reduction in airborne particles.''
In throwing out the case, federal judge Maxine Chesney said Consumer Reports was exercising 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 the articles were misleading, but the San Francisco-based company decided to end the case because the purifiers are selling well.
Logic tells you if it doesn't need cleaning it isn't working.
Business - AP
AP
Consumer Reports Criticizes Air Purifier
Mon Apr 4, 9:58 PM ET
By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO - Consumer Reports magazine is taking renewed aim at a popular air purifier made by The Sharper Image two months after it fended off a libel lawsuit filed by the machine's retailer.
The magazine reports in its latest issue hitting newsstands Tuesday that Sharper Image's Ionic Breeze Quadra Silent Air Purifier and four other similar machines fail to significantly clean the air ?- but also release potentially unhealthy levels of ozone.
The article is being published two months after San Francisco-based Sharper Image agreed to pay the magazine's publisher, Consumers Union, $525,000 in legal costs after a judge dismissed its libel suit. The failed lawsuit alleged that earlier magazine articles highly critical of the Ionic Breeze's ability to reduce airborne particles were false and malicious.
Company lawyer E. Robert Wallach said Sharper Image was evaluating how to respond to the article, which advised against buying the machines. More than 2 million of the $350 units have been sold.
"It is astonishing that Consumers Union would continue its misguided efforts to attack the judgment and experience of millions of Americans who are satisfied with the performance of the Ionic Breeze products," Wallach said in a statement.
In a statement of its own, Consumer Reports said the magazine's latest article is accurate and that the nonprofit organization had called on federal regulators to look at the advertising claims being made by sellers of the five air purifiers it examined.
"All of these 'not recommended' products did a poor job in our tests of removing dust, smoke and pollen from the air," the statement said. "In addition, all five of these products failed in Consumer Reports' labs the standard industry test for ozone generation."
Consumers Union is based in Yonkers, N.Y.
Shares of Sharper Image Corp. fell 4 percent, or 67 cents, to close at $15.68 Monday on the Nasdaq Stock Market, near their 52-week low of $14.08.
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