Recent FTC Action On "Made In USA" Claims

The Federal Trade Commission's "Made in USA" standard is set forth in its Enforcement Policy Statement on U.S. Origin Claims and is also codified in the FTC's recently-promulgated Made in USA Labeling Rule. Essentially, if you want to make an unqualified claim that a product is made in the United States, you have to be able to substantiate that the product was "all or virtually all" made here. And, according to the FTC, you'll never be able to demonstrate that unless the product was last "substantially transformed" in the United States as well.

Almost every month, the FTC wraps up investigations into U.S.-origin claims made by marketers.

Sometimes, the FTC takes enforcement action, such as in the FTC's recent case against a group of clothing accessory companies who allegedly falsely claimed that their products were made in the United States, even though they were either wholly imported or contained significant imported content. As part of the settlement, the