Care label trouble for importer
FTC issues fine for “dryclean”
label
Pelle Pelle, Inc., a clothing importer out of Michigan that retails
imported men’s and women’s sportswear, last month
agreed to pay a $40,000 civil penalty to the Federal Trade Commission to settle
charges of improper garment care labeling.
The FTC alleged that Pelle had put
improper care labels on several styles of its men’s pants
and jackets. The garments, which were made of 100 percent
polyester flocked fabric, were labeled as safe for machine
washing or drycleaning, but, according to the FTC, the garments
were damaged during the drycleaning process.
More specifically, “the adhesive on
the flocking dissolved, resulting in the disintegration of the
flocking,” the FTC said in its official complaint.
Also in the complaint, the government
agency cited that Pelle had violated the Rule by failing to
possess, prior to sale, “a reasonable basis for all care
information disclosed to purchasers on the care
labels.”
Additionally, FTC claimed that Pelle had
recommended “drycleaning” on its care labels
without specifying at least one type of solvent that could be
used successfully in the cleaning process without causing
garment damage.
In conjunction with the $40,000 civil
penalty, Pelle’s settlement with the FTC also requires
the company to maintain and make available various records of
its care instructions and the reasonable basis for those
instructions.
The agency plans to use that information
in order to monitor Pelle’s compliance with the Care
Labeling Rule over the course of the next five years.
The Care Labeling Rule was originally
established in 1971 to require manufacturers and importers of
textile wearing apparel to attach labels to their products with
reasonable proper care instructions, including warnings to
prevent garment damage during the cleaning process. The rule
has since been amended twice, in 1983 and 2000.
Since October of 1992, there have been 18
cases by the FTC against companies alleged to have violated the
Care Labeling Rule. Civil penalties levied in those cases have
exceeded over $1 million in overall fines.
The two most notable penalties issued were
against Jones Apparel Group in 2002 and Tommy Hilfiger USA,
Inc. in 1999. The FTC charged both companies $300,000 each.
FTC claimed that the Jones Apparel Group
was guilty of various infractions, including selling garments
that became damaged and/or faded during cleaning even when the
care label was followed.
The case against Tommy Hilfiger focussed
on garments that were purportedly damaged from dye bleeding
when the care instructions were heeded.
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