AGREES TO FORK OVER $3 MILLION PENALTY
With over 600 stores, in some 60 countries, Williams-Sonoma is a publicly-traded, consumer-retail company that sells kitchenware and home furnishings.
In a press release issued by the United States Department of Justice (along with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)), the government announced a settlement of a lawsuit which had been filed against the company, for “false and misleading claims about the origins of its products.”
In addition to paying over $3 million in civil penalties, the company has agreed to stop making unsubstantiated country-of-origin claims.
In a written statement, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division noted that, “The Justice Department will vigorously enforce laws to stop deceptive advertisers from making misleading and fraudulent claims to sell product …. Williams-Sonoma misled consumers by touting products as made in the USA when at least one of them was made in China. We will continue to work with the FTC to stop deceptive marketing practices like this.”
Now how un-American was that?
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