Business Blog
Next on the regulatory review roll
It can be one of the biggest expenditures a consumer makes. It’s a uniquely sensitive transaction. And it’s covered by an FTC Rule.
We’re talking about funerals and the FTC has just announced that as part of its ongoing regulatory review process, it’s taking another look at the Funeral Industry Practices Rule. In effect since 1984 and last amended in 1994, the Funeral Rule is designed to protect consumers from deception and unfairness. In promulgating the Rule, the FTC observed that shopping for funeral goods and services is different from other purchases. Consumers may lack familiarity with the transaction. They often have to make major financial commitments under tight time constraints. And they’re making these decisions under the emotional strain of bereavement.
The Rule requires funeral providers to give consumers itemized price information up front and to provide additional details about the cost of caskets and burial vaults when discussing or showing those items. It also gives consumers the right to buy just the goods and services they want. In addition, the Rule establishes some legally-enforceable dos and don’ts for funeral providers:
- They can’t require consumers to buy a casket for direct cremation;
- They can’t condition the furnishing of goods or funeral services on the purchase of other things – for example, they can’t charge a “casket handling” fee to consumers who provide their own casket;
- They can’t embalm the deceased for a fee without authorization when embalming isn’t required by law; and
- They can’t misrepresent legal or local cemetery requirements about things like embalming, outer burial containers, or other funeral goods or services.
As part of our review of the Funeral Rule, we’re asking for your feedback. The Federal Register Notice includes a list of specific questions about the costs and benefits of the Rule. For example, to what extent have changes in technology and consumer preferences impacted the marketplace? Should the Rule require funeral providers to post their itemized price lists online? Would a standard format for pricing information make it easier for consumers to comparison shop and streamline industry compliance? Are there new industry practices the Rule should address?
Once the notice appears in the Federal Register, you’ll have 60 days to file your public comment. In the meantime, the FTC has compliance information for funeral providers and advice for consumers about shopping for funeral services.
It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.
The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.
We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.
In reply to Should the Rule require by Guest
The FTC will publish the notice in the Federal Register soon. After the notice appears in the Federal Register, you’ll have 60 days to file your public comment.
The comments you submit to this blog are not added to the Public Comments.
In reply to Does this mean that funeral by Guest
Right now, under the Funeral Rule, if you're talking to a funeral provider in person and you ask about funeral goods, services, or prices, the provider has to give you a General Price List that shows itemized prices for the goods and services they sell. That itemized list lets you comparison shop and choose only the goods and services you want to buy.
A funeral provider may also offer package funerals, and list them on the General Price List.