Posted by WatchDog in the Power Balance Scam thread, but I thought it deserved it's own thread  ( credit to WatchDog ):

And, as expected, Epic Fail by Power Balance.

Last year Australian regulators found the the claims of improved flexibility and balance and strength increases were misleading, and Power Balance had to publicly admit that there were no scientific evidence to support their claims, and agreed to refund customers in Australia.

A US lawsuit soon followed, and Power Balance was sued by customers alleging the company falsely claimed it's bracelets improved athletic performance. After the company was sued it was reported that the their revenues dropped through the floor.  In September Power Balance agreed to settle the lawsuit in Federal court. Under the reported terms of the settlement, anyone who purchased a wristband would be eligible for a refund of $30 plus a $5 shipping fee, for an estimated liability of up to $57 million dollars according to some sources.

Power Balance filed for bankruptcy protection in Santa Ana California last friday. The company benefited by reaching a settlement before going to trial, which would have exposed the company to all sorts of discovery to provide proof of the holographic bracelets benefits, which of course they can't, so a settlement agreement followed by a quick bankruptcy is a great way to dodge the 'truth' bullet and still try to bamboozle the remaining true believers into selling and using the product.

Power Balance tweeted yesterday, "Power Balance is not going out of business. See our new performance mouth gear launching this week".

One humorous twitter reply summed it up with: "Does your new mouthguard have holograms that you fraudulently declare will improve sporting performance?"

I stand by my previous posts that this holographic quackery is pure hoax, and if Power Balance survives they will only do so by rewording their marketing and presentation material so that it no longer claims any performance, but only implies it using ambigious *wink* *wink* language that will be less actionable by legal authorities.