Lily Robotics, who preyed drone Lily, announced the end of her business despite the $ 34 million increase in pre-sales and $ 15 million in private funding. The reason? He was dismissed by the San Francisco prosecutor's office for false and misleading advertising.
The San Francisco Attorney's Office has conducted a "multi-month investigation" into the Lily Drone and came to the following conclusion: The very expensive professional camera that brought the drone to company's promotional video it wasn't actually a Lily, but a DJI Inspire, something the creators failed to mention. The result is that fantastic commercial video with his aerial drone tricks he tricked prospective customers into pre-paying and ordering.
In addition, the company had promised the delivery of the drone in February of 2016, which never happened. The prosecutor's office claims that the company's customers due to the delay requested their money back, but Lily had used that money to cover the $ 4 million bank loan.
The company had not used known websites for their advertising product and its pre-orders, like Kickstarter, but had developed an independent "pre-order" on its site. So not having a third party to check it the product was too late to be manufactured resulting in the demand for refunds from the prospective buyers. A rule of FTC Mail Order requires that if a pre-ordered product is delayed significantly, the company will have to refund the amount unless the customers declare they are not bothered by the wait.
This is the second Lily Robotics crime that has forced the prosecutor's office to file a temporary binding order to block Lily's assets.
Lily has promised to repay the money, but she will also have to pay civil penalties: $2.500 for each of the violations described above for each case. Depending on how the judge interprets the facts and how the lawyers present their case, the fine be from a few thousand dollars to as much as $300 million.