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FTC Amends Labeling Rules for Consumer Products
Practical Law Legal Update w-000-8594 (Approx. 4 pages)
FTC Amends Labeling Rules for Consumer Products
by Practical Law Commercial Transactions
| Law stated as of 19 Nov 2015 • USA (National/Federal) |
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has published a new final rule to amend its regulations for how businesses can label consumer products under the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act.
On November 17, 2015, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a final rule to amend consumer commodity labeling regulations under the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA) (Rules, Regulations, Statements of General Policy or Interpretation and Exemptions Under the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, 80 Fed. Reg. 71686-01 (Nov. 17, 2015)).
This rule amends the FPLA by:
- Updating the place-of-business listing requirement and permitting a product's manufacturer, packer, or distributor to omit its street address if the address is listed in any readily accessible, well-known, and widely published resource, including:
- a printed directory;
- an electronic database; or
- a web site.
- Deleting the current metric conversion chart (16 C.F.R. 500.19(a)) and instead incorporating by reference the complete metric conversion chart published in National Institute of Standards and Technology Handbook 133, Checking the Net Contents of Packaged Goods.
- Expressly permitting the use of exponents with customary inch/pound measurements on labels instead of just metric measurements.
- Removing prohibitions on certain retail price sales representations such as "cents off," "introductory offer," and "economy size."
- Expressly noting that some products exempt from FPLA requirements may still be subject to state weights-and-measures laws.
This final rule becomes effective on December 17, 2015.
For more information on the FPLA and other federal labeling requirements, see Practice Note, Product Labeling.