While enjoying these lovely summer days, did you ever wonder how many milk jugs or detergent bottles went into making that “green” picnic table you’re sitting at? You may now. The already peculiar concept of “plastic lumber” is further complicated when manufacturers make false statements about its contents. As new products emerge touting environmental attributes,
FTC Finds Green Diaper Claims Full of …Leaks
In its most recent effort to police the accuracy of environmental claims, the FTC took action against Down to Earth Designs, Inc. marketers of gDiapers, a product that consists of a reusable outer “pant” and removable inserts. The agency alleges that the company ran afoul of the requirements for environmental claims laid out in the FTC’s “Green Guides” by making unqualified claims that the gDiaper inserts and wipes are plastic free, compostable, and biodegradable when flushed or thrown out.
The complaint alleges that the unqualified biodegradable claims are misleading because the majority of the inserts will eventually end up in a landfill, either because users throw them in the trash or flush them, where they are subsequently filtered out of the water as part of the treatment process and sent to a landfill. The FTC takes the position that once in a landfill, it is impossible for a material to degrade within a reasonably short period of time. All regrettable diaper puns aside, there are lessons to be learned from this, and other recent green claim enforcement actions, for companies that wish to avoid getting in deep… trouble.
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We Have One Word for You: Plastics.
To paraphrase Mr. McGuire in The Graduate, “There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?” Well, the FTC clearly has taken that advice and has been thinking about the future of plastics in landfills. When the FTC announced its revised Green Guides slightly more than a year ago they amended their guidance on biodegradability to make clear that unqualified biodegradability claims cannot be made for products that are customarily disposed of in landfills. In doing so, the FTC rejected comments that suggested it adopt a scientific protocol safe harbor for biodegradability claims because it felt that no such protocol exists that adequately replicates real world landfill conditions.
Well the FTC made it clear this week that they meant what they said. The Commission announced five enforcement actions involving plastic biodegradability claims and another case involving a more general biodegradability claim. This confirms what we’ve been telling people – biodegradability claims are the most common type of environmental cases brought by the agency and after yesterday there isn’t even a close runner- up.
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How to Keep Cool with all of the Confusing Cases with ‘Up To’ Claims?
In a recent NAD case Honeywell International, Inc. challenged claims made by Nest Labs, Inc. for its Nest Programmable Thermostats in print and internet advertising. Honeywell challenged several performance-related “up to” claims (claims that convey performance-capacity/energy-savings “up to” a certain percentage point). Rather than run through each claim in the 30+ page decision and the arguments on each side in their entirety, it is perhaps most ‘energy efficient,’ if you will, to evaluate NAD’s decisions related to the max performance claims.
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Old Drones Never Die, They Just Biodegrade
Regular readers of our blog know that we try to write about subjects that are very top of mind. But how to write an advertising blog about surveillance and snooping? Thankfully the University of Queensland in Australia has provided the answer – biodegradable drones. A team of researchers there have created two drones –
The One That Got Away: FTC Provides Little Guidance on Sustainable Seafood Label
When the FTC released its revised Green Guides last October, the Agency provided detailed guidance on a number of topics but declined to provide guidance on the claim of “sustainability.” In doing so, the Commission noted that its job is not to define terms but rather to help advertisers avoid making claims in a manner
USDA Releases Draft Guidance on the Definition of Natural vs. Synthetic
On April 2, 2013, USDA released Draft Guidance here, here, and here addressing an issue that has plagued the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB”) for years: how to determine whether a substance is agricultural or non-agricultural and synthetic or non-synthetic. These determinations are paramount when considering whether a substance may be used in
FTC Forces Paint Companies to Remove “Green” From Their Palette
The paint was hardly dry and the pixels hardly dissolved on the FTC’s revised Green Guides, before the Commission announced two green marketing settlements. Several paint companies had been marketing their paints as “free of” volatile organic compounds or VOCs as those of us who were organic chemistry majors like to call them. Eliminating
Upcoming Panels on Green Guides and Up To Claims
The ABA Antitrust Section is sponsoring two terrific free panels. One on Friday, October 12 at 2 p.m. with Jim Kohm from the FTC reviewing the final Green Guides. Another on Monday, October 15 will focus on the FTC’s recent cases involving “up to” or maximum performance claims. Amy Mudge will be moderating both panels.
The Final Green Guides Are Here
It just got a little easier being green. Yesterday, the FTC announced the final version of its revised Green Guides. And as one might expect, the FTC did not just recycle its prior draft but made some important revisions, based in part upon many of the approximately 340 unique comments it received.
Jim Kohm,