As we have pointed out in several articles this year, Epson is focused on highlighting deceptive advertising practices by some other projector manufacturers to ensure consumers are aware of exactly what they are buying.
In an effort to continue that quest, Epson announced this week a lawsuit filed against VAVA for their promotion of the VAVA 4K Ultra Short Throw Laser TV as either a 2,500 or 6,000 Lumens claim. According to third-party testing, both claims are inaccurate with the projector testing well under 2,500 Lumens.
VAVA lists the brightness at 2,500 ANSI Lumens on Amazon and on their web site.
When we reviewed the VAVA projector, we only measured about 1800 ANSI Lumens this about 25% lower than VAVA’s ANSI Lumen claim.
VAVA ultra short throw projector in white. Our review did not produce the Lumens they claim.
To see read our full review and see our brightness measurement:
With more and more consumers purchasing projectors as TV replacements, Epson is leading the charge to ensure industry standards in terminology and truth in advertising is upheld.
“VAVA’s false lumens claims are misleading to consumers and this misrepresentation of performance creates confusion among people looking at viable home entertainment solutions,” said Mike Isgrig, vice president, consumer sales and marketing, Epson America. “Ultimately, the industry suffers as a whole when companies misrepresent key performance claims and customers purchase products that don’t meet their viewing expectations.”
As we discussed in our article Lux vs Lumens: Brightness Standards Matter, projector buyers need to be cautious of misleading measurement claims often listed as ”Lux,” “LED lumens” or “Lamp Brightness” that are not internationally recognized standards of on-screen light output performance and are often very misleading. Governing bodies, such as The International Committee for Display Metrology (ICDM), publishes the Information Display Measurement Standards (IDMS) where the methodology for measuring projector color brightness and white brightness separately are fully defined. The ISO standard which defines projector measurement methodology is 21118:2020. When these standards are followed, there is no ambiguity regarding how a projectors brightness is measured and compared.
Epson seems very focused on ensuring a fair marketplace with accurate information for consumers. So far they have been make progress including its recent settlement agreement with Philips and Screeneo Innovation in which the parties agreed that all future Philips NeoPix projectors designed, manufactured and sold by Screeneo will use industry standard specifications. As we recently covered, Epson also filed suit against four projector brands sold on Amazon – Vankyo, WiMiUS, GooDee, and Bomaker – for misleading claims in advertising, and recently reached an agreement with Bomaker.
In 2019, Epson also reached a settlement with Curtis International Ltd. and Technicolor in its lawsuit alleging the companies falsely advertised the lumens of projectors manufactured and sold under the RCA and ONN (Walmart) brand names. Curtis agreed to advertise its projectors only using the industry standard and to modify its packaging to reflect the accurate lumens ratings. In addition, in 2018 Epson obtained a permanent injunction and damage award for $5 million as a result of its successful litigation against iRulu for falsely advertising lumens ratings.
