Fraudulent "Made in the USA" claim on website

can I turn in a competitor to the FTC?

[beren]

One of my client's competitors imports merchandise from Asia, paints it, and sells it. Their website claims products are "made in the USA". My client is sure they are not - industry gossip, I suppose.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) website claims you can't advertise something as "made in the USA" unless it is mostly true (some part can be imported, but most must be domestic). They have a number you can call to report fraud. I'm wondering if anyone has ever turned a website for making this claim. If so, how much documentation did you have, and were there any results?

[rogerd]

Beren, I think this is a question for your client's law firm. At the very least, I think you would have to purchase the product and verify that it is actually foreign made. Then the lawyers would have to read the law carefully to determine whether a real violation exists. For example, if I buy a foreign item for a dollar, pay someone a dollar and a half to paint it, do I have a product that's mostly domestic? Darned if I know... but I'd watch out for a legal minefield here.

[BaseVinyl]

I seem to recall reading something about a city in China or Japan than actually renamed their city to "USA" so they could write "made in USA" on all their locally produced products! Although maybe that's an urban legend! ;)

[Ally_Cat]

My favorite Urban Legends site says that one is false...

Apparently, there is a town named Usa in Japan - but it has been there since long before the "Made in USA" craze began.

Can see where that legend started from, for sure!

[BlueSky]

If so, how much documentation did you have, and were there any results?

You don't need a lot of documentation to file a complaint. You can submit just a suspicion alone. If you provide some solid evidence to back your claim, then you'll have a better chance of seeing action. Some areas though are of much higher interest than others. This is often politically steered by folks like Congress. I've never sent in a complaint on someone stamping foreign products with "made in the USA". So, I don't know where that lies in their interest meter. I have sent in other complaints which they have taken action on.

When you forward a complaint to the FTC, it actually goes into their master database which is used by various federal and state agencies/orgs around the country. One of them may take an interest as opposed to the FTC. If this guy is a small fry, you may be better off reporting him to his state's AG or writing to one of your Senators and let him champion the complaint for you. U.S. Senators and Reps are very powerful people. If you can get one of them interested, they'll bother the respective federal agency until something is done. You need an awful lot of patience though because things like this could take a very long time before you see action. Feedback is very rare while they investigate.