The many facets of advertising diamonds with clarity
By: Lesley Fair and Robert Frisby | May 3, 2019 10:58AM
Last month the FTC sent staff warning letters to eight firms advertising simulated or laboratory-created diamonds. According to the letters, the companies had promoted their products without adequately disclosing that they weren’t mined diamonds.
Continue Reading The many facets of advertising diamonds with clarity
Warning letters re-”mined” diamond sellers to describe products accurately
By: Lesley Fair | Apr 2, 2019 11:09AM
Remember the old Superman movie where the Man of Steel squeezed carbon in his hand to create a diamond? That’s not how it’s done, but these days not everything sparkly comes from a mine. In addition to mined diamonds, consumers can choose simulated diamonds or diamonds created in a laboratory. What matters to consumers – and the FTC – is that companies accurately describe what they’re selling.
Continue Reading Warning letters re-”mined” diamond sellers to describe products accurately
“Diamonds and Pearls” – and revisions to the FTC’s Jewelry Guides
By: Lesley Fair | Jul 24, 2018 1:41PM
This will be the day
That you will hear me say
Read the F-R-N
Without delay.
Continue Reading “Diamonds and Pearls” – and revisions to the FTC’s Jewelry Guides
New FTC website helps small businesses
By: Tom Pahl, Acting Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection | May 9, 2017 11:24AM
When scammers and hackers attack small businesses, it hurts not only the businesses’ reputations and bottom line, but also the integrity of the marketplace. Today, FTC Acting Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen announced a new FTC website, FTC.gov/SmallBusiness, to help business owners avoid scams, protect their computers and networks, and keep their customers’ and employees’ data safe.
Are your FCRA policies worth the paper they’re printed on?
By: Lesley Fair | May 9, 2016 11:01AM
In the words of movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn, “An oral contract isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.” If your company provides information about consumers to credit bureaus, the law requires that you have written policies in place regarding the accuracy and integrity of that data. But are your policies worth the paper they’re printed on? That’s one of the issues presented in an FTC settlement with Dallas-based debt collector Credit Protection Association.
Continue Reading Are your FCRA policies worth the paper they’re printed on?
By: Steve Toporoff | Jun 12, 2013 11:01AM
Are you a creditor? Are you covered by the Red Flags Rule, a regulation designed to help businesses spot the signs — or "red flags" — of identity theft? Do you know how to tell?
Shakespeare, Led Zeppelin, and the FTC?
By: Lesley Fair | May 9, 2013 10:37AM
Shakespeare coined the line in The Merchant of Venice. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant referred to it in Stairway to Heaven. And now it's one of the topics up for discussion at an FTC Roundtable on Wednesday, June 19, 2013. Any guesses?
"All that glitters is not gold."
More time to polish up your comments
By: Lesley Fair | Aug 15, 2012 1:43PM
When it comes to the FTC’s Jewelry Guides, we’re looking for your pearls of wisdom, your sterling opinions, and other flawless feedback about how the standards affect consumers and businesses. Back in June, we told you that the Jewelry Guides were getting another look as part of the FTC’s systematic review of its rules and
By: Lesley Fair | Jun 28, 2012 11:54AM
Square cut or pear shape,
These rocks don’t lose their shape.
By: Lesley Fair | Oct 31, 2011 9:08AM
In celebration of Halloween — and with apologies to Edgar Allen Poe — here’s our take on what companies can do to make sure spooky business practices don’t come back to haunt them.
Once upon a midnight lawful
Pondering practices, good and awful,
Reading through the U.S. Code
For dos and don’ts I parse and claw.
I came upon the Trade Commission’s
Section 5 with all revisions.
By: Lesley Fair | Oct 11, 2011 1:31PM
Like Maria in The Sound of Music, brown paper packages tied up with strings are a few of our favorite things. So it's no surprise that catalog and online shopping has become a time saving essential for millions of Americans.
Closed encounters of the third kind
By: Lesley Fair | Aug 8, 2011 9:57AM
Savvy executives like to stay in the loop on FTC activities that could affect their industry. They make it a habit to scan the headlines or check for relevant workshops or reports. But there’s a third category of information a bit less understood: closing letters from BCP staff.
In the spirit of transparency, the agency posts them online. Here in the BCP Business Center, recent letters appear in the Compliance Documents section of each topic area.
By: Lesley Fair | Jul 14, 2011 1:14PM
Say “spam” and most business executives think of annoying messages that litter their IN box. But the CAN-SPAM Act and the FTC’s CAN-SPAM Rule cover a much broader range of commercial email. Yes, that includes messages offering to split $50 million languishing in the foreign bank account of a deposed prince. But the Rule also applies to a wide variety of communications with customers or potential customers — for example, an email notifying them about a product you’re featuring or an upcoming sale.
By: Lesley Fair | Jul 11, 2011 10:20AM
Is your briefcase feeling lighter? That’s because your dog-eared copy of Volume 16 of the Code of Federal Regulations (where most FTC rules and guides live) is decidedly thinner these days. For the past two decades, the agency has undertaken a systematic review of its rules and guides to make sure they’re up to date, effective, and not overly burdensome. As each rule comes up for review, we ask ourselves — and you — four questions:
Hacked Off by an Email Data Breach?
By: Nat Wood | Apr 6, 2011 11:05AM
According to news reports, hackers recently accessed the database of Epsilon, a large marketing company that sends emails on behalf of banks, stores and other businesses. Was your company an Epsilon client? If so, the stolen information could make it easier for crooks to send emails that appear to be from your brand.
Here are a few things you can do to help your customers avoid a phishing attack that abuses your brand.
Welcome to Consumer University
By: Lesley Fair and Alvaro Puig | Mar 30, 2011 7:14PM
As your customers' buying habits make clear, today’s consumer marketplace knows no borders. That’s why the FTC and officials from nine Latin American countries are meeting in Washington, D.C., this week to consider the challenges of global consumer protection.
Complaint stats tell the story
By: Lesley Fair | Mar 8, 2011 4:43PM
Consumers have found their voice. And last year they raised it more than 1.3 million times to complain about identity theft, fraud, and products that didn’t live up to the advertising hype.
By: Lesley Fair | Mar 7, 2011 4:24PM
Break out the bubbly and raise a toast: It's National Consumer Protection Week. NCPW is an annual campaign sponsored by the FTC and nearly 30 other federal agencies, consumer groups, and advocacy organizations, in conjunction with state, county, and local government offices that are sponsoring events nationwide. The goal? To encourage consumers to take full advantage of their rights and make better-informed decisions.
By: Lesley Fair | Jan 6, 2011 1:27PM
The packages have been opened and the ribbons have been collected by that one relative who claims to recycle them. The good news is that early reports suggest that 2010 was a robust holiday shopping season. But now retailers are starting to hear that the sweater didn’t fit, the electronic gadget is on the fritz, and Great Aunt Gladys didn’t really want hang gliding gear after all.
By: Carol Kando-Pineda | Jan 3, 2011 12:48PM
If you advertise or sell platinum jewelry, you’ll want to stay “in the loupe” and read recent revisions to the FTC’s Jewelry Guides that address the marking — and marketing — of jewelry made of platinum and non-precious metal alloys and when disclosures are appropriate.
