Falsifying the origin of goods! Cross-border seller receives US$20 million fine

Clearly and correctly marking the origin of goods is a common requirement of customs around the world. Since most goods are subject to spot checks, there are always brands and sellers who take chances. Recently, a big seller on Amazon suffered because of this.

According to US media reports, Williams-Sonoma, a well-known US cross-border home furnishings retailer, was fined $3.17 million (about 22.9 million) by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for "falsifying the origin of goods" and "suspected of false advertising". This broke the record of $2 million fine issued by the FTC to Kubota North America earlier this year. In the words of the FTC, "This is the largest settlement in the history of "Made in America" ​​cases in the United States."

According to documents submitted by the FTC to the U.S. federal court, six products sold by Williams-Sonoma were labeled "Made in the USA," but after verification, these products were all from other countries. However, Williams-Sonoma did not state in the product description that the products were processed by overseas manufacturers, nor did it state that the raw materials of the products came from other countries.

The document specifically points out a mattress sold by Pottery Barn Teen (a brand of Williams-Sonoma), which was made in China, but between April 2022 and August 2023, the company claimed that the product was made in the United States using imported materials.

It is worth mentioning that Williams-Sonoma faced the same lawsuit in 2020, when the company was found to have falsely labeled products of four of its brands as “Made in the USA”.

It is reported that the FTC also requires Williams-Sonoma to provide evidence of assembly or processing in the United States for all products marked "Made in the USA".

Williams-Sonoma's false labeling behavior is not only because Americans are more willing to choose "Made in the USA", but also because the US government has increasingly promoted "Made in the USA" in recent years.

According to data, in order to achieve the goal of "getting at least 5 million (American) people back to work during the economic recession", the US government has been making every effort to promote "Made in America" ​​in recent years. Therefore, the "origin" requirements for local companies selling products are getting higher and higher. However, the US supply chain itself is not competitive, which leads to higher costs for retailers. In order to save costs, many brands choose to purchase goods from overseas and then claim that the products are from China.

However, this incident also serves as a reminder to domestic sellers that product labels must not only be clearly marked but also correctly marked, and that they should not label products from other countries as "Made in the USA" in order to increase the conversion rate of products. If they are fined for this, they will not only suffer losses, but also affect the reputation of their stores.

It is worth mentioning that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection ( CPB) has now launched a strict investigation into vague and non-compliant cargo descriptions. It is reported that the announcement issued by CBP clearly stated that they will work with all U.S. ports to implement cargo information transmission and communicate and investigate cargo with vague and non-compliant cargo descriptions with entry declarants.

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