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An Indianapolis-based energy service company and LED lighting manufacturer is suing an Arkansas contractor after the contractor allegedly made misrepresentations about the value and quality of the company’s products.
Ikio LED Lighting LLC filed its lawsuit in Marion Superior Court on Tuesday, accusing Negawatt Partners LLC of making false and negative claims about Ikio’s lighting products’ performance. Ikio is asking the court to declare that it made no misrepresentations regarding the quality of its products.
Negawatt did not return The Indiana Lawyer’s calls or online message requesting comment on the lawsuit.
According to the complaint, Negawatt is a company that installs lighting and energy components. It may buy products from companies such as Ikio to install at customer facilities.
In 2017, Ikio and Negawatt entered into a business arrangement, with Negawatt purchasing various Ikio products.
From 2017 to 2022, Ikio says there had been no material disputes, complaints or performance issues raised between the companies.
In early 2023, the companies’ relationship developed further as Negawatt took on other projects, the complaint stated. For these projects, Ikio was responsible for product and installation delivery, while Negawatt acted as the product installer.
From 2023 to 2025, Negawatt continued buying Ikio’s products, and Ikio says there were no disputes during that time period.
But on March 26, 2026, Negawatt sent Ikio a demand letter and draft complaint, threatening Ikio with legal action for allegedly making false representations about the performance attributes of stadium floodlights it sold to Negawatt, the complaint stated.
According to the complaint, Negawatt claimed that Ikio “induced Negawatt to pay prices averaging 260% higher than comparable products by representing that Ikio products had superior performance characteristics that they did not, in fact, possess.”
Negawatt claimed it paid a $4 million price premium based on Ikio’s “false performance and marketing representations.”
Ikio says Negawatt’s conclusions were made after Negawatt performed a “non-scientific” and “non-technical” test of Ikio’s products.
According to the lawsuit, in 2023, Negawatt experienced a “low-lumen-output” issue, or low visible light, after it had purchased stadium lights from Ikio for a project. But Ikio says Negawatt failed to perform a “photometric analysis” before installing the fixture, which would have ensured that the selected lights were appropriate for the specific application.
“As it turned out, they were not,” the complaint stated.
A Negawatt customer complained to the company about the lack of proper light output, to which Negawatt told Ikio it had used a handheld tool to attempt to measure the lights’ output, the lawsuit stated.
But after Ikio conducted its own “appropriate” testing of a randomly selected light, the company found that the light produced above-average lumens.
Ikio says it then invited Negawatt to visit its Batesville, Indiana, facility, where it has professional testing equipment and tools.
Negawatt brought one of the light fixtures it bought from Ikio to the facility, according to the complaint.
During the visit, Ikio explained the results of its testing and “observed that Negawatt had disassembled the fixture and reassembled it improperly.”
“After resolving that issue, Ikio tested the fixture appropriately (i.e., using engineering- caliber instruments) and confirmed that the fixture was working properly and produced
lumens within the range Ikio specifies for that product,” the complaint stated. “Negawatt observed the testing, and indicated that it was satisfied.”
But in 2025, Negawatt performed its own test on the same light fixture. Negawatt concluded that Ikio’s product performance was poor, according to the lawsuit.
Ikio asserts that Negawatt’s test findings, which were made using a spreadsheet and various calculations, revealed that Negawatt did not actually “test” Ikio’s lights in “any meaningful sense of the word.”
Negawatt had not filed a response at the time of publication.
The case is IKIO LED Lighting, LLC v. Negawatt Partners, LLC, 49D01-2606-CE-034722.
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