The Federal Trade Commission has taken unprecedented steps to crack down on products falsely labeled “Made in the USA” in a bid to protect American consumers from being scammed and American manufacturers from being undercut.
| PULSE POINTS |
❓ WHAT HAPPENED: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has intensified its crackdown on companies falsely labeling products as “Made in the USA.” 📺 DETAIL: FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said the Trump administration is taking “unprecedentedly aggressive steps” to protect American manufacturers and consumers. “We want our economy to thrive, and not just the consumer part of the economy… We want the manufacturing part of the economy to thrive. And so, if you’re going to try to take advantage of consumer preference for things that are made in America, you have to be honest about it,” said Ferguson. FTC policies require products labeled as “Made in the USA” to be almost entirely produced domestically. Products falsely marketed as being “Made in the USA” can become subject to expensive settlements and civil enforcement actions, potentially costing liable companies hundreds of thousands of dollars. In one case exposed by the FTC, two companies, Americana Liberty LLC and Three Nations LLC, allegedly sold American flags marked “Made in the USA” despite the fact that “significant or essential foreign components” were imported from China, resulting in $167,743 in “consumer redress.” 💬 KEY QUOTE: “President Trump has ordered the federal government to focus on making sure that companies that say that they’re making products in America are actually making products in America, and this is super important because there’s a ton of evidence that the American people are willing to pay a premium to get products that are made in America, for good reason.” – Andrew Ferguson. 🎯 IMPACT: This represents an intensification and continuation of a crackdown by the FTC announced back in April, when the Commission announced a series of enforcement actions against companies falsely advertising their products as “Made in the USA.” In one case, TouchTunes Music Company faced a penalty of $625,000 for falsely claiming that its electronic dartboards were U.S.-made. |
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