FTC settles lawsuit against cell phone shield firm

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has settled a lawsuit against the maker of a device supposed to protect cell phone users from electromagnetic radiation, and, as part of the settlement, the California company will no longer be able to sell the shields, at least not in the U.S.

The settlement, announced Wednesday, bars West Sacramento company Comstar Communications from marketing its WaveShield, WaveShield 1000 and WaveShield 2000 devices, which it claimed would block up to 99 percent of radiation and other electromagnetic energy emitted by cell phones. In its February 2002 complaint against the company, the FTC alleged the claims were “false and unsubstantiated.”

A message left with Comstar Wednesday was not immediately returned. The company does not admit to the FTC allegations in the settlement.

The Comstar devices covered only the earpiece of cell phones, not other parts that emit electromagnetic energy such as antennas, said Serena Viswanathan, a staff attorney, with the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. While the health effects of cell phone radiation remain a topic of debate, some products that cover a larger area of a cell phone can block more radiation, although they may also interfere with reception, Viswanathan said.

The company sold $52,000 worth of the devices, according to the FTC. The settlement prohibits Comstar from marketing or selling any product that “purports to reduce consumers’ exposure to radiation and electromagnetic energy, unless the claims are true and can be substantiated by competent and reliable scientific evidence,” the FTC said in a press release. The order also prohibits Comstar from making unsubstantiated claims about any products or services, and requires the defendants to tell customers that most electromagnetic energy emitted by cell phones comes from parts of the phone other than the earpiece, and that the WaveShield has no significant effect on this other radiation.

Comstar and its president Randall A. Carasco had marketed the products on the Internet, and by television and radio, according to the FTC press release. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, in Sacramento, approved the settlement April 28, and the agreement went into effect on that date, Viswanathan said.

But a Google search of “WaveShield 2000” produced a handful of Web sites still offering the product for sale, including a natural health store with an Australian domain name, Naturalhealthdirect.com.au, and Stopthewavestore.com, which identified itself as affiliated with Comstar and with another company, Communications 2000, also based in the Sacramento area. A phone number on the Stopthewavestore.com site rang into a voice mailbox at Communications 2000, and a message was not immediately returned.

The FTC settlement bans Comstar from selling the devices, it’s only products, in the U.S., but it doesn’t ban resellers from marketing those same devices, Viswanathan said. It’s also questionable whether the FTC settlement can enforce a ban on the sale of the devices to other countries, she said.

“This will prevent this company from selling this product to U.S. customers,” Viswanathan said. “They are out of business, essentially.”

The FTC settlement does not include a fine. “We determined that they did not have the ability to pay any monetary settlement,” Viswanathan said.

The FTC announced April 4 that it has received a default judgment against two other companies marketing cell phone shields. A federal judge in Florida approved a permanent injunction and default judgment for $726,874.06 against Stock Value 1 and Meristar International.