Sep 30, 2014

Email  |  Twitter Euro-Pro Operating LLC of Newton, a privately held manufacturer of household cleaning equipment with aggressive names such as the "shark" vacuum cleaner, filed suit in federal court in recent days accusing industry power-house Dyson of overstating the sucking power of the vacuum cleaners it sells. And Euro-Pro says it has the science to prove its case. Euro-Pro states in the suit filed in U.S. District Court for Boston that it complained to Dyson not long after Dyson launched in 2013 what Euro-Pro called a "multi-million national advertising campaign" promoting its "Animal" vacuum cleaner. Dyson , according to Euro-Pro's suit, states that its Animal-series vacuums have "twice the suction" of rivals. Dyson 's literature specifically targets competitors, Euro-Pro says, stating that Dyson s have twice the power "compared to top-performing produce for each brand. " That wasn't true when the Euro-Pro vacuum at issue was the "Shark Navigator Lift Away ," a vacuum that Dyson mentioned by name in its advertising, Euro-Pro says. What's more, Euro-Pro says, the Dyson has nowhere near twice the power of the newer Euro-Pro Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away vacuum. "To establish this fact, Euro-Pro has commissioned third-party independent laboratory testing, conducted pursuant to (a commonly used) standard," the suit states. The suit includes an exhibit from a company called Intertek detailing the results of various tests comparing the sucking power of Euro-Pro and Dyson vacuum cleaners. Intertek's report states that the equipment its used to perform the tests included: a Robert White Barometer , a Meriam Manometer, an Omega Thermohygrometer, a power analyzer and a tape measure. Page 1