California Apparel News

Richard Wortman of the Grunfeld, Desiderio, Lebowitz, Silverman & Klestadt LLP law firm in Los Angeles specializes in the legal issues of the garment industry. Still, he said, even he was surprised when he learned environmental marketing claims are regulated. “Until then, I hadn’t been cautioning clients about the claims they made about the sustainability or ’greenness’ of their apparel,” he said. “Now, it’s a totally different story.”

Under the Federal Trade Commission Act, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has the authority to regulate environmental marketing. In 1992, the FTC first issued the “Green Guides,” which indicate how the commission will apply the FTC Act to environmental marketing claims. The Green Guides were last revised in 1998, but in June, the FTC announced that it will be reviewing the Green Guides to ensure that they still apply to today’s marketplace.

If a company is found to make misleading green claims, the FTC can bring a civil suit. Recently, the FTC took actions against Kmart Corp. and others for claims that products were labeled as biodegradable in a way that was allegedly false and unsubstantiated.

The “greenwashing” of products is an issue in many industries, including the garment industry, where it is popular to label apparel as “green” under a variety of guises. One common practice, for example, is to label a T-shirt made from organic cotton as “eco-friendly,” even though it has been treated with non-eco-friendly dyes and washes before reaching the consumer. Under the FTC’s Green Guides, manufacturers who use such claims could be leaving themselves vulnerable to prosecution by the commission.

According to the Green Guides, the FTC’s environmental guides apply “to all forms of marketing for products and services: advertisements, labels, package inserts, promotional materials, words, symbols, logos, product brand names and marketing through electronic media, such as the Internet or e-mail.

Here, California Apparel News has excerpted key points from the Green Guides that apply to the garment industry. A full copy of the FTC’s 33-page Green Guides document can be found here or www.ftc.gov. Prove It

bull; “All marketers making express or implied claims about the attributes of their product, package or service must have substantiation, that is, a reasonable basis for their claims. When it comes to environmental claims, a reasonable basis often may require competent and reliable scientific evidence, which is defined as tests, analyses, research, studies and other evidence based on the expertise of professionals in the relevant area conducted and evaluated in an objective way by qualified people using procedures generally accepted in the profession to yield accurate and reliable results.”Word Play

bull; Words and language that imply “green” and could be interpreted as “false and misleading” or deceptive if not properly substantiated or clearly attributed include—but are not limited to—“recycled,” “organic,” “eco-friendly,” “green,” “environmentally safe,” “environmentally preferable,” “non-toxic,” “biodegradable,” “recyclable” and “sustainable.”Comparative Claims

bull; “Environmental marketing claims that include a comparative statement should be presented in a manner that makes the basis for the comparison sufficiently clear to avoid consumer deception. In addition, the advertiser should be able to substantiate the comparison.” For example, the Green Guides recommend that if a boardshort is using 20 percent more recycled materials, the hangtag or advertisement should specify that the claim is specific to that garment, not the garment of a competitor. A clear claim could read “20 percent more recycled content than our previous boardshort.”General Environmental Marketing Claims

bull; “It is deceptive to misrepresent, directly or by implication, that a product, package or service offers a general environmental benefit. Unqualified general claims of environmental benefit are difficult to interpret and, depending on their context, may convey a wide range of meaning to consumers. hellip; Every express and material implied claim that the general assertion conveys to reasonable consumers about an objective quality, feature or attribute of a product or service must be substantiated. Unless this substantiation duty can be met, broad environmental claims should either be avoided or qualified, as necessary, to prevent deception about the specific nature of the environmental benefit being asserted.”