Berkey USA statement + details December 2022

Additional info (December 2022) Links on websites (December 2022) and blogs about Berkey being by a customer in USA for failing to filter 99,9% of water and not lasting as long as stated.

Posts have been circulated on social media and other blog websites late 2022 about Berkey is being sued in California USA court by a consumer in the US regarding the testing doesn’t match the manufacturer’s stated life cycle of the filters.

As of today the, Lawsuit is in process of dismissal since filters were not bought by plaintiff from authorised Berkey dealer and therefore ARE NOT ORIGINAL BERKEY® filters

Please note there is nothing to worry about here and Berkey has been tested hundreds of times over the years and is usually rated the best water purification system on the market by most of the health and wellness websites etc and this brand has over 20 years history and millions of long time customers all over the globe

Berkey Statement Regarding Berkey Water Filter Lawsuit

Over the past couple months we have been receiving inquiries from customers regarding Berkey's involvement in litigation for the Black Berkey filters.

We asked the manufacturer of Berkey products (New Millennium Concepts, LTD) to release a statement to our customers so that they would feel at more ease in understanding the merits of this lawsuit.

Counterfeit / Copy / Fake / Lookalike products are a real problem for Berkey and the following official statement speaks to that.

At the bottom of this statement is a link to NMCL's (USA Berkey Manufacturer’s) page that shows examples of Berkey counterfeit products that are unfortunately saturating the market.

Also please see our blog post about ‘’verifying Original Berkey® systems’’

Berkey Official Statement Regarding Lawsuit - December 2022

Attorneys typically advise clients not to discuss ongoing litigation, and New Millennium Concepts, Ltd. (NMCL), provider & Manufacturer of Berkey® water filters, has remained silent until now.

However, NMCL believes that our loyal customers deserve a public response to the false and erroneous misinformation appearing online regarding a lawsuit filed against NMCL.

There are many problematic issues in the lawsuit that we cannot address here, but below are some brief highlights:

• One of the named plaintiffs previously filed a lawsuit, but later withdrew after NMCL responded to the suit and showed that the plaintiff’s claims were so weak that she would obviously lose.
• Now the plaintiffs have filed a second lawsuit, apparently attempting to engineer around the arguments that NMCL made during the first lawsuit. This current lawsuit seems to be just another attempt to “do-over” the first suit in order to force NMCL to settle.
• We also believe that much of the information that the plaintiff collected for the lawsuit came from Berkey knock-off filter websites because of their carbon block descriptions (Black Berkey® Elements are not carbon block filters), and the plaintiff repeatedly uses the term “Berkey Black” in their lawsuit, which is a term utilized by knock-off filter websites in order to engineer around our trademark “Black Berkey®”.
• While the plaintiffs claim Black Berkey® Elements do not perform as advertised, the plaintiffs do not claim that they have suffered any physical or health-related harm in anyway by their Berkey® systems. Instead, plaintiffs claim that they are representing everyone that has ever purchased a Berkey® system, claiming that Berkey® systems are “nothing more than an empty can or plastic bottle”.
• We strongly believe the plaintiffs’ allegations are not based on valid testing of authentic Black Berkey® Elements, but are based on counterfeits which are deceptively similar in appearance, but are mere carbon block filters which look like Berkey® filter elements. The plaintiffs’ testing results in no way comport with the factual results of other independent accredited third-party labs that have tested genuine Black Berkey® Elements.

NMCL vigorously denies the plaintiff’s allegations and we believe that the plaintiff is utilizing counterfeit product to exact a settlement. History of Black Berkey® Elements and Counterfeit Products

History of Black Berkey® Elements and Counterfeit Products

• Over two decades ago, NMCL developed the proprietary formulation for our Black Berkey® Elements, and during their history they have undergone what we believe to be the most rigorous testing of any other gravity-fed filter elements. Berkey® water systems have been utilized in off-grid applications by relief groups for disaster recovery, charities, and people worldwide without access to clean water for over two decades without a complaint of which we are aware as to their ability to remove contaminants from unpotable water sources. More importantly, to our knowledge there has never been a successful suit filed against the Black Berkey® Elements because they have historically provided customers with exceptional performance and value—a perception that has been challenged only because Chinese and other foreign counterfeit filtersentered the market failing to meet consumers’ performance expectations and appear so similar to genuine Black Berkey® Elements that consumers are being misled by not being able to determine the difference between the authentic Black Berkey® Elements and the counterfeit carbon block filters.
• Worse, NMCL discovered that major online retail marketplaces were commingling at their warehouses counterfeit elements supplied by unauthorized sellers with authentic Black Berkey® Elements supplied by our authorized Berkey® dealers. The marketplaces then shipped product from the commingled inventory to consumers who purchased authentic Black Berkey® Elements. Since that discovery, NMCL has required its authorized dealers to opt out of all commingling programs, and keep separate inventories at Amazon and other platforms to prevent comingling from occurring in the future. However, it is important to note that the majority of plaintiffs claim to have purchased their products on Amazon prior to NMCL discovering the commingling issue. NMCL believes that the plaintiffs likely tested counterfeit Berkey® elements, and that NMCL is being required to defend itself against the performance of Chinese and other foreign counterfeit carbon block filters rather than the proven performance of authentic Black Berkey® Elements. Moreover, NMCL is also being required to defend itself against various websites, social media and video-sharing platforms that presume the likely imitation carbon block filters tested in the lawsuit are authentic Black Berkey® Elements, when they are not. If the plaintiff tested counterfeit or knock-off filters, then obviously any testing they conducted is irrelevant to the performance of authentic Black Berkey® Elements.

Regarding Black Berkey® Elements Test Results

• Multiple accredited third-party laboratories have tested Black Berkey® Elements and those independent results validate that they meet exceptional standards of quality. NMCL’s claims are based upon test reports from these laboratories, which are available on our website at: Black Berkey Water Filter Test Results
• NMCL has had an extremely difficult time in getting cooperation from major online retail platforms in removing the counterfeit filters. This only allows the counterfeit problem to continue metastasizing. In fact, of 57 test buys of Black Berkey® Elements purchased from unauthorized sellers on two major platforms, 51 test buys (89%) were confirmed as being counterfeit—meaning that 89% of sales from unauthorized sellers were just generic, untested Chinese or foreign carbon block filters packaged to imitate the appearance of authentic Black Berkey® Elements. The problem has become so pervasive that the estimated sales of verified counterfeit filters have exceeded more than two and a quarter million dollars during the first nine months of 2022 on just one major U.S. online retail marketplace alone.

We also ask that Berkey® customers assist us and NMCL in purging the market of counterfeit filters by always buying Berkey® systems and Black Berkey® Elements from authorized Berkey® dealers.

We can NOT Guarantee the authenticity if your Berkey system is bought on online marketplaces

We DO NOT sell our Berkey systems on Amazon, Ebay or any of other marketplaces websites 

Please check the authenticity of your purchase and make sure the seller is authorised and is selling original products if you decide to buy from online marketplaces 

Customers can verify authorized dealers by calling our customer service department in your country or buy from our online shops in UK and Europe

www.berkey-waterfilters.com 

www.berkey-waterfilters.co.uk 

www.berkey-waterfilters.fr 

www.berkey-waterfilters.de

www.berkey-waterfilters.eu 

If you suspect your online marketplace purchase (from Amazon, eBay, etc.) may contain counterfeit elements, please check this page (https://support.berkeywater.com/buyerbeware/) for a guide to identifying counterfeit elements. Then, after reviewing those examples, if you believe you have received counterfeit filters, we suggest the following course of action:

1. Demand a full refund from the dealer or marketplace.
2. Return the product stating the specific seller from whom you purchased, shipped
   you counterfeit filters.
3. Leave a review on the specific seller’s storefront stating that the seller sold and
   shipped you counterfeit filters, rather than authentic Black Berkey® Elements.
4. Contact NMCL to report the marketplace and seller that sold you the counterfeit
   product (this helps us identify and take action against unauthorized sellers). We also
   urge customers who have been fooled into purchasing untested knock-off carbon
   block filters advertised as replacements to follow the same procedure.
5. Replace the counterfeit filters by purchasing genuine Black Berkey® Elements from
   an authorized Berkey® dealer.

We appreciate the countless Berkey® Water System users around the world and want to assure you that we fully stand by the quality of Berkey® products and intend to defend and defeat this baseless lawsuit.

Following this link will show you the extent counterfeiters are willing to go to decieve our Berkey customer base.

How to Identify Counterfeit Berkey® Products

https://support.berkeywater.com/identify-counterfeit-berkey-products/

——————————————

NEW and updated Black Berkey® boxes / 2022

See below (older models and still being sold in their original boxes as before until they runs out

Recent attacks on the Berkey® brand through various websites, social media, and video-sharing platforms have sought to discredit the Berkey® brand and NMCL using various nefarious tactics. One such tactic has been to make public a lawsuit that was brought against NMCL. It has been NMCL's policy not to respond to every attack or claim made against us or the Berkey® brand. Please understand our position and why we have delayed making a statement on this, "attorneys typically advise clients not to discuss ongoing litigation, and New Millennium Concepts, Ltd. (NMCL), provider of Berkey® water filters, has remained silent until now. However, NMCL believes that our loyal customers deserve a public response to the false and erroneous misinformation appearing online regarding a lawsuit filed against NMCL."

In conclusion to our statement:

"We appreciate the countless Berkey® Water System users around the world and want to assure you that we fully stand by the quality of Berkey® products and intend to defend and defeat this baseless lawsuit."

Please click the following link to access our Offical NMCL Statement Regarding Berkey Water Filter Lawsuit. 

• Download a PDF copy

• View the webpage of the statement

You may share this statement with the public.

We sincerely appreciate your patience, and the loyalty you have shown toward promoting and defending Berkey® products. 

NMCL

Updated Buyer Beware Page focuses on Counterfeit Products

Much of the NMCL response regarding the lawsuit focused on explaining the fact that "we strongly believe the plaintiffs’ allegations are not based on valid testing of authentic Black Berkey® Elements but are based on counterfeits which are deceptively similar in appearance but are mere carbon block filters which look like Berkey® filter elements. The plaintiffs’ testing results in no way comport with the factual results of other independent accredited third-party labs that have tested genuine Black Berkey® Elements."

Furthermore, with the recent influx of Chinese and other foreign counterfeit filters entering the market (inferior products that appear very similar to genuine Black Berkey® Elements), consumers are being misled by not being able to determine the difference between the authentic Black Berkey® Elements and the counterfeit carbon block filters. These counterfeit, foreign products have inherent performance and usability issues, which customers now are mistakenly attributing to Berkey® products—damaging our brand’s hard-earned and well-deserved reputation for performance and reliability. 

Therefore we have created web pages that explain the situation and provide resources to consumers that will enable them to identify the difference between counterfeit and authentic Black Berkey® Elements. We encourage you as a dealer to share these resources.

Link to BUYER BEWARE PAGE or our Blog post on UK - EU - FR - DE sites about verification on Berkey systems and warning about counterfeit systems being sold online in USA - and Europe mostly