The home products retailer made history when it became the first company to be issued a fine for false country of origin labeling. It looks like it will make history again, and not in a good way.
For the second time in four years, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has levied a hefty fine on home products and kitchenware retailer Williams-Sonoma for falsely labeling imported Chinese products as “Made in USA.”
In 2020, Williams-Sonoma became the first company to be issued a monetary penalty by the FTC when the agency assessed a $1 million fine on the luxury home goods company after having found that several of the brand’s imported products were labeled as “all or virtually all made in the United States.”
But Williams-Sonoma did not seem to learn its lesson and has continued with its deception of where some of its products are made.
In a federal court filing this week, the FTC stated it will seek damages of $3.18 million, its largest fine ever for false-labeling claims. The federal government trade watchdog accused Williams-Sonoma of claiming six products as Made in USA without disclosing they were manufactured outside of the U.S. or contained foreign components. In addition to its own products line of goods, Williams-Sonoma is the parent company of Pottery Barn, Rejuvenation and West Elm.
One of the falsely labeled products is the Pottery Barn Teen mattress pads that in 2022 and 2023 were falsely advertised as “crafted in America from domestic and imported materials.” The FTC investigation found that these mattress pads were entirely made in China.
The 2020 ruling against Williams-Sonoma included the same mattress pads, and at the time, the company corrected the country-of-origin information and agreed to comply with the FTC’s requirement to “undertake a larger review of its country-of-origin verification process.”
It is now apparent that Williams-Sonoma failed to completely comply with that 2020 court ruling and continued to deceptively label some of its products as “Made in USA.” The company admitted that the latest FTC allegations are true and will certify its compliance with the new order for the next five years.
Prior to the 2020 FTC order against Williams-Sonoma, the FTC had found dozens of companies guilty of misleading “Made in USA” labeling in the previous 25 years, but its rulings carried little weight. There were no fines for cheating companies, no notices to consumers were issued and the guilty companies did not even have to admit any wrongdoing.
But that all began to change in 2020 when the FTC issued its first-ever financial penalty and yes, it was against Williams-Sonoma.
In 2021, President Biden helped the FTC put more teeth into its false Made in USA rulings by signing an executive order that increased the threshold by which the government decides an item can be labeled Made in America.
The Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) has been a longtime advocate of strict country-of-origin labeling and has consistently urged the FTC to strengthen its “Made in USA” enforcement mechanisms. AAM President Scott Paul participated in an FTC workshop in 2019 where he and other participants fought for the kind of enforcement we are now seeing today.
Before the original order in 2020, San Francisco-based Williams-Sonoma flaunted its false “Made in America” labeling with a strong advertising campaign focusing on its so-called “domestic” products. The company even put together a video about Pottery Barn furniture being “Made in America.”
Consumers who look for the “Made in USA” label are specifically seeking a product of top American quality and are willing to pay an additional extra cost to secure something manufactured right here at home. They also realize that by doing so, they are supporting local jobs and reinvesting in American communities.
Williams-Sonoma is not the first company to deceive its customers, and unfortunately, it likely will not be the last. But at least the FTC now has the tools and wherewithal to flex its muscle and penalize companies that cheat. This is protection for all American consumers.