Remember the Razer Zephyr? The fancy face mask with supposedly N95-grade filters first announced back in 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic was keeping most people indoors? At the time, the company only made the mask available in the US market, but it looks like the brand made quite a bit of money from the mask. In fact, it made a total of US$1.07 million (~RM5.11 million) in revenue. And we know this because the gaming peripheral brand has to pay all of this to the US FTC.
The American agency has announced that the company has to pay said amount, which is equal to the revenue from the Razer Zephyr, plus a US$100,000 (~RM477,050) civil penalty. This is due to the initial claims made about the mask providing N95-level protection when it was first sold. Reports a few months after noted that the company has scrubbed mentions of N95 after they were called into question by YouTuber Naomi Wu.
All of the money mentioned above would, according to the FTC, be used to “provide refunds to defrauded customers” who bought the Razer Zephyr. The language used by the agency is also on the harsh side, calling the case an effort “to combat COVID-related health product scams”.
Extrapolating from the revenue amount, it would probably be convenient to say that almost 10,000 of the Razer Zephyr masks were sold, judging from the US$99.99 asking price. But that would probably be inaccurate as the number of people who just bought the mask with the few filters it come with were not revealed. Nor were the number of people who opted for the Starter pack with came with more filters and a price of US$149.99, or topped up on filters with the US$29.99 filter pack of 10 filters.
It’s also worth noting that a Razer Zephyr Pro was announced during CES 2022, featuring a voice amplifying module and a higher asking price of US$150. Perhaps understandably, it never materialised as shortly after it was announced, the N95 rating of the base model was already being called to question.
