The Federal Law states an advertisement “must be truthful, not misleading, and, when appropriate, backed by scientific evidence.” (Federal Trade Commission) If an advertisement does not apply to these rules, it is by definition false and therefore illegal. The Federal Trade Commission, by their own standards, enforces these rules and punishes the companies guilty of breaking them. Making false claims about products and services is a very broad spectrum. The claims can range from quality and origin to blatant lying about what a product can do. I will examine a multitude of court cases brought to the Federal Trade Commission in the rest of this section. To start, I will examine cases having to deal with a company lying about quality or origin.
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Penney were charged with mislabeling. According to the complaint against the companies, each company was reportedly “advertising rayon textiles as made of ‘bamboo’” after having received warnings from the FTC back in 2010 to stop mislabeling their products. (Federal Trade Commission) In other words, the companies were selling products that were labeled as being made of bamboo, when in reality the products had been chemically processed into rayon, which is a repurposed wood pulp made into a type of synthetic textile-like fiber. Due to the fact that the companies had been previously warned to cease in their behavior, they have been charged with “violating the Textile Act and the Textile Rules and with violating Section 5(m)(1)(B) of the FTC Act by falsely and deceptively selling the mislabeled products, despite knowing that doing so was illegal and could subject them to civil penalties.” (Federal Trade Commission) The companies are now required to pay civil penalties that total over $1.3 million and have court orders prohibiting them from labeling their rayon products as
Penney were charged with mislabeling. According to the complaint against the companies, each company was reportedly “advertising rayon textiles as made of ‘bamboo’” after having received warnings from the FTC back in 2010 to stop mislabeling their products. (Federal Trade Commission) In other words, the companies were selling products that were labeled as being made of bamboo, when in reality the products had been chemically processed into rayon, which is a repurposed wood pulp made into a type of synthetic textile-like fiber. Due to the fact that the companies had been previously warned to cease in their behavior, they have been charged with “violating the Textile Act and the Textile Rules and with violating Section 5(m)(1)(B) of the FTC Act by falsely and deceptively selling the mislabeled products, despite knowing that doing so was illegal and could subject them to civil penalties.” (Federal Trade Commission) The companies are now required to pay civil penalties that total over $1.3 million and have court orders prohibiting them from labeling their rayon products as