Lumosity, which created a brain game powerhouse by telling people it could make them smarter, is paying for its lies. Lumos Labs will pay the US Federal Trade Commission $US2 million for deceptive trade practices.
Art by Jim Cooke
“Lumosity preyed on consumers’ fears about age-related cognitive decline, suggesting their games could stave off memory loss, dementia, and even Alzheimer’s disease,” FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Jessica Rich said in a statement. “But Lumosity simply did not have the science to back up its ads.”
People who signed up for Lumosity’s auto-renewal program between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2014 will get notified about the FTC action and given an easy way to cancel.
Comments
3 responses to “Lumosity Has To Pay $2 Million For Claims About Its Brain Games”
And Nintendo got away scott free!
But they were always far less obnoxious about it, and the excellent sudoku mode was worth the (one-off) price of admission.
I feel like too much is being done to “protect” people from their own stupidity rather than educating them to question the the plethora of assumptions they’re making about everything and everyone *sigh* every day.
Good.
Below note: I always thought the US Federal Trade Commission encouraged scamming and the like. It’s the American way to side with the people making money over consumers. Good to know my assumptions were wrong, at least in this case.