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FTC Targets Misleading Environmental Certification Seals
Practical Law Legal Update w-000-5900 (Approx. 4 pages)
FTC Targets Misleading Environmental Certification Seals
by Practical Law Commercial Transactions
| Law stated as of 16 Sep 2015 • USA (National/Federal) |
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sent warning letters to various providers of environmental certification seals and businesses that use those seals to alert these parties that their seals may be deceptive and violate the FTC’s environmental marketing guidelines (the Green Guides).
On September 14, 2015, the FTC announced that it has sent letters to five providers of environmental certification seals and to 32 businesses that use those seals to warn these companies that their seals do not conform with requirements in the FTC’s Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims (Green Guides) (16 C.F.R. §§ 260.1-260.17). These nonconforming certification seals could be deceptive marketing and therefore violate Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act).
The Green Guides, the FTC's guidance on how the FTC Act applies to certain environmental advertising practices, discusses:
- General principles that apply to all environmental advertising claims.
- How consumers are likely to interpret particular claims and how marketers can substantiate these claims.
- How marketers can qualify their claims to avoid deceiving consumers.
In these letters, the FTC advised the parties not to use environmental certification seals that either:
- Make unqualified general environmental benefit claims. These claims likely convey a wide range of meanings, including that a product has specific and far reaching environmental benefits and that a product has no negative environmental impact. The FTC discourages advertisers from using these claims because it is highly unlikely that they can substantiate all reasonable claim interpretations.
- Imply a general environmental benefit claim. The FTC believes that environmental certification seals or seals of approval may imply a general environmental benefit claim for the product. Because these general claims are difficult to substantiate, the FTC discourages parties from using environmental certification seals unless they convey the basis for the certification. The seal should include clear and prominent qualifying language that clearly conveys that the seal refers only to specific and limited benefits.
The FTC is not currently disclosing the recipients of these letters or taking any law enforcement actions against those parties. However, these letters should serve as a reminder that any business that uses green marketing should carefully review its marketing campaign and related labeling to ensure compliance with the Green Guides and other marketing laws.
For more information on the Green Guides, see: