Nike and Apple have agreed to a $2.4 million settlement over claims the Nike+ FuelBand failed to accurately track calories burned by the fitness tracker’s users.
The settlement comes as Nike and Apple have moved on to other projects—Nike has mostly shuttered its digital products division and Apple has bet big on its own Apple watch, which comes with an array of health and fitness features.
But the lawsuit shines a light on the growing market for wearable technology, which claim to count everything from calories to when a woman had her last period. And it reminds us that a lot of claims from consumer-facing health products may not be rooted in science, but in marketing.
Los Angeles resident Carolyn Levin sued the companies in California in 2013, claiming FuelBand users ”experience wildly inaccurate calorie burn readings” and that people who purchased the fitness band were misled. She alleges that Nike and Apple knowingly engaged in false and misleading advertising for the fitness band, which the companies launched in 2012 to much fanfare.
Nike and Apple continue to deny the allegations. They said they wanted to settle the case in order to avoid future legal costs. Nike will give people who bought the gadget $15 in cash or a $25 Nike gift card in exchange for giving up rights to bring future legal action.