News

23310 readers

3580 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

334

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

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

69 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Of course 50% of gross revenue would immediately bankrupt WSM.

And? Is a housewares store too big to fail?

[–] [email protected] -2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

No, but causing a business to fail is not necessarily the best response to a violation. I don't want WSM to fail over "made in the USA" labels for the same reason I don't want dispensaries to shut down.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

If a dispensary lied for years about where it sourced its weed and went bankrupt due to the fines, I wouldn't shed any tears there either.

False advertising should be given zero tolerance. And it isn't, which is why people keep dying in Teslas using the Autopilot mode.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

OK, and if the dispensary violated DEA regulations for years should it likewise be fined out of existence?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

No, because that doesn't kill people in some circumstances. Seems like a big difference.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 6 months ago

Violating DEA regulations often kills people in some circumstances.

It's true that a cannabis dispensary is unlikely to kill someone, but the same is true of a "Made in the USA" label.

If the specific circumstances of a violation matter for a dispensary, then they should also matter for WSM. Dispensaries don't sell narcotics, and WSM doesn't sell Teslas.