The seller of a device it says is capable of blocking wi-fi, 5G, and electromagnetic field radiation has been told to remove the ad from its website. Photo / 123RF
The seller of a device it says is capable of blocking wi-fi, 5G, and electromagnetic field radiation has been told to remove the ad from its website. Photo / 123RF
A company selling a device invented for "blocking electromagnetic field radiation" has been told to remove the advertisement from its own website.
The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint about the ad on the Life Energy Solutions website which described the New Power P.E.BAL device as having advanced electromagnetic field [EMF] shielding technology.
The $169 device was touted as "the strongest EMF device on the market today", which offered a "huge protective field of 36 metres".
The device was said to be "more than capable of dealing with wi-fi, 5G, electromagnetic field radiation, geopathic stress – or indeed, any unbalanced energy ...".
The complainant said the advertiser claimed the device was able to "block electromagnetic field radiation".
Life Energy Solutions said it did not claim to block EMF with the product, but rather it used the words "dealing with", which referred to the action of technology in the device based on the work of scientist Wilhelm Reich.
Reich, who died in 1957, is described online as a Viennese psychiatrist who developed a system of psychoanalysis that concentrated on overall character structure rather than on individual neurotic symptoms.
A P.E.BAL device similar to that advertised by Life Energy Solutions. Photo / Supplied
The sexual evangelist who invented the "orgone energy accumulator", nicknamed the "orgasmatron" also held that satisfactory orgasm made the difference between sickness and health.
The authority's complaints board said the claims made in the advertisement about the EMF blocker were unsubstantiated.
The board reached its conclusion after assessing whether there had been a breach of the Therapeutic and Health Advertising Code, which required advertisements to be socially responsible and truthfully presented.
The board also relied on precedents in which similar complaints in a community newspaper advertorial and in a pamphlet about the effects of EMF were also upheld.
In the end, it agreed the likely consumer takeout from the advertisement was that the device would shield users from the harmful effects of various electromagnetic fields, and therefore the advertisement was misleading.
"This is because the substantiation provided by the advertiser was not of an adequate level to support the claims being made, both in relation to the illnesses said to be caused by exposure to EMF and the ability of the device to shield against the potential harmful effects," the board said in its recent decision.
Life Energy Solutions director David Slinger told Open Justice multiple online reviews in support of the device were proof of its value.
A scan of reviews on the global review platform Trustpilot shows that many people are convinced of its merits.
"We sell products; we have happy customers.
"We offer things of value and what someone believes or not, is up to them."
Slinger said people would always have different views about different things, and different levels of education with which to inform those views.
He said understanding the principles of energy was "not rocket science".
Slinger said they offered a money-back guarantee on the product and so far only one in 350 sales had been returned because the customer was not satisfied.
"We stand by what we are doing. People can believe or not and if they think we are doing something fraudulent they can go elsewhere."
He said the main concern from the complainant seemed to be an objection to the wording in the advertisement which had now been changed.
The complaints board said while there were people with strongly held beliefs about the potential harmful effects of EMFs, the substantiation provided appeared to be opinion-based and was not sufficiently robust to support the claims made in the advertisement, and instructed it was to be removed.
