Williams-Sonoma must pay almost $3.2 million for violating FTC's 'Made in USA' order ( apnews.com )

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14804431

Home products retailer Williams-Sonoma will have to pay almost $3.2 million for violating a Federal Trade Commission “Made in USA” order.

Williams-Sonoma was charged with advertising multiple products as being “Made in USA” when they were in fact manufactured in other countries, including China. That violated a 2020 commission order requiring the San Francisco-based company to be truthful about whether its products were in fact made in the U.S.

The FTC said Friday that Williams-Sonoma has agreed to a settlement, which includes a $3.175 million civil penalty. That marks the largest-ever civil penalty seen in a “Made in USA” case, the commission said.

“Williams-Sonoma’s deception misled consumers and harmed honest American businesses,” FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said. “Today’s record-setting civil penalty makes clear that firms committing Made-in-USA fraud will not get a free pass.”

In addition to paying the penalty, the seller of cookware and home furnishings will be required to submit annual compliance reports, the FTC said. The settlement also imposes and reinforces a number of requirements about manufacturing claims the company can make.

jordanlund OP Mod ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

The weird thing is that they make a lot of money correctly sourcing country of origin when that product and country is known for quality.

Le Creuset cast iron being made in France for example. I inherited my first piece from my grandmother, she bought it in the 1950s and it's STILL usable. It's an heirloom piece. It outlived her and will likely outlive me.

But China, Thailand, etc.? Known for "cheap", not "quality". Which is odd considering W-S prices.

Ptsf ,

There's a lot of reputable Chinese firms that lead in their field of manufacturing and production, often producing things that just couldn't be made elsewhere. It's a quite big country afterall.

schwim ,
@schwim@lemm.ee avatar

I'm sure it's record-setting and the number seems large to a broke consumer but I suspect it's a drop in the bucket when looking at how much they made lying about where their products were made.

reddig33 ,

Hopefully it’s a warning shot.

BearOfaTime ,

Meh, what did they sell or gross last year?

These penalties need to be commensurate with the profit from the violation. Say 2x the gross sales of the mislabeled product.

Then companies would pay attention if they know breaking the rules will send them in reverse.

Otherwise it's just a cost of doing business.

halcyoncmdr ,
@halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world avatar

No, it's now created a known price point for other businesses wanting to do the same.

It's no longer an unknown cost, so they can plan it into their profit calculations.

This is why these judgments need to be a significant percentage of revenue from the affected products instead of set amounts. Not net profit, gross revenue. You sell $2B of affected products and make $350M profit... The fee should be $1B instead. You lose all profit and a significant penalty for violating the rule/law.

The_v ,

Add in - Illegal activity fines should be assigned to Executive's and Board's personal finances first. Then the companies assets once they are tapped out.

Illegal activity in business should always have personal consequences. Otherwise it's the employees that suffer while the people responsible for the activity don't give a fuck.

henfredemars ,

Yep, it’s a drop in the bucket when they have revenue in the billions. It’s a clear indicator to companies that the risk of violating the label is quite minimal.

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