Power Balance forced to admit its products have no scientific basis

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has forced the Australian subsidiary of Power Balance to withdraw marketing claims which they felt were not credible from a scientific point of view.

The Age website quoted the commission’s chairman Graeme Samuel as saying: “Power Balance has admitted that there is no credible scientific basis for the claims and therefore no reasonable grounds for making representations about the benefits of the product. Its conduct may have contravened the misleading and deceptive conduction section of the Trade Practices Act 1974.”

Celebrity athletes like Shaquille O’Neal have gone on record saying the wrist bands have improved their performance. The sellers of the product claim on their website that the “holographic technology … work with your body’s natural energy field” and is “based on the idea of optimizing the body’s natural energy flow …”.

O’Neal is paid by Power Balance to endorse their products.

The Australian authorities however disagree with their assertions and forced them into a retraction.

Power Balance published a retraction on its Australian website: “We admit that there is no credible scientific evidence that supports our claims.”

However, in another Power Balance website, they wrote: “Power Balance products work. While our previous claims in marketing ads are not up to Australia’s ACCC standards – we stand behind our products. The belief of thousands of consumers and athletes who wear our products are not wrong.”

Critics believe the products just provide a placebo effect.

Power Balance is reported to have sold US$35 million worth of goods in 2010.