Williams-Sonoma to Pay $3M to Settle Claims It Falsely Sold Goods as Being Made in USA
Kitchenware retailer Williams-Sonoma agreed to pay $3.2 million in civil penalties and "stop making false and misleading claims about the origins of its products," settling a lawsuit brought in a California court, DOJ announced. The agency alleged that Williams-Sonoma violated a Federal Trade Commission administrative order barring the company from advertising wholly imported goods and goods containing "significant imported content" as being "Made in the USA" (U.S. v. Williams-Sonoma, N.D. Cal. # 24-02396).
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DOJ said the company "admits the truth of the" allegations. In a separate release, FTC Chair Lina Khan said the company "claimed its products were made in the United States even though they were made in China," saying Williams-Sonoma's "deception misled consumers and harmed honest American businesses. Today’s record-setting civil penalty makes clear that firms committing Made-in-USA fraud will not get a free pass."
In a complaint filed April 22, the U.S. said that from April 2022 to August 2023, the company advertised "certain PBTeen mattress pads as 'Crafted in America from domestic and imported materials'" when in fact they were "wholly imported from China." In addition, the FTC pointed to six other products made with "foreign parts, ingredients, or components" or processed outside the U.S."
When Williams-Sonoma submitted a July 2021 compliance report to the FTC, at "least three products were deceptively marketed as" Made in the U.S., the complaint said.
Williams-Sonoma didn't respond to a request for comment.