Popular athletes wear and endorse them purportedly to enhance their competitive skills but Choice merely labelled the rubber wristband as a waste of money and now Australia's consumer watchdog calls the product as nothing but a scam.

Power Balance has been claiming that its sports bracelet provides balance, strength and flexibility by working through its owners' natural energy prowess but that assertion has been watered down by the manufacturer's recent admission that no science could back such benefits.

As a result, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is ordering Power Balance Australia to refund all customers wanting to return the product, with ACCC chair Graeme Samuel declaring in his Thursday statement that rubber wristband carries "no credible scientific basis for the claims and therefore no reasonable grounds for making representations about the benefits of the product."

Power Balance currently retails at $29.90, according to the product's online site, and is worn by well-known sports figures such as Brendan Fevola, Kevin Pietersen and Nick Riewoldt.

Samuel said that Power Balance's false claims are directly violating the provisions of the Trade Practices Act of 1974, which explicitly prohibits deceptive and misleading advertisement of products sold in Australia.

As such, continued marketing and selling of the product with deliberate deception by local retailers would constitute regulatory action from the ACCC, according to Samuel.

Consumer advocacy group Choice listed Power Balance to its Shonky awards this year as it declared that tests conducted on the product merely confirmed suspicions that the rubber wristband was more effective in emptying a person's pocket than enhancing his athletic ability.

Also, Power Balance has admitted in November that it may have violated the therapeutic goods advertising code and proceeded in striking out such claims on its Australian official website.