98-22445. Guides for the Feather and Down Products Industry  

  • [Federal Register Volume 63, Number 161 (Thursday, August 20, 1998)]
    [Rules and Regulations]
    [Pages 44553-44555]
    From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
    [FR Doc No: 98-22445]
    
    
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    FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
    
    16 CFR Part 253
    
    
    Guides for the Feather and Down Products Industry
    
    AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.
    
    FINAL ACTION: Rescission of the Guides for the Feather and Down 
    Products Industry; announcement of enforcement policy.
    
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    SUMMARY: On April 15, 1994, the Commission published a Federal Register 
    notice initiating the regulatory review of the Federal Trade 
    Commission's (``Commission'') Guides for the Feather and Down Products 
    Industry (``Guides'') and seeking public comment. On October 28, 1996, 
    the Commission published a second Federal Register notice seeking 
    additional information. In the 1996 notice, the Commission indicated 
    that it had made a preliminary determination to retain but modify the 
    Guides and sought comment on several issues. The Commission has now 
    completed its review, and this notice announces the Commission's 
    decision to rescind the Guides. In addition, the notice provides a 
    general enforcement policy statement with respect to misrepresentations 
    concerning feather and down-filled products.
    
    EFFECTIVE DATE: August 20, 1998.
    
    ADDRESSES: Requests for copies of this notice should be sent to the 
    Consumer Correspondence Center, Room 130, Federal Trade Commission, 6th 
    St. and Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20580. The notice is 
    available on the Internet at the Commission's website, http://
    www.ftc.gov.
    
    
    [[Page 44554]]
    
    
    FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alice Au, Attorney, Federal Trade 
    Commission, New York Regional Office, 150 William Street, Suite 1300, 
    New York, NY 10038, (212) 264-1210 or Carol Jennings, Attorney, Federal 
    Trade Commission, Division of Enforcement, 6th St. and Pennsylvania 
    Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20580, (202) 326-3010.
    
    SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    
    I. Introduction
    
        The Guides for the Feather and Down Products Industry addressed 
    claims for the advertising, labeling, and sale of products that are 
    wholly or partially filled with feathers or down, and all bulk stocks 
    of processed feathers or down intended for use or used in the 
    manufacture of such products. The Guides specifically addressed, among 
    other things, the use of trade names, symbols, and depictions; the 
    tolerances for filling material; and the cleanliness of filling 
    material.
        As part of the Commission's ongoing review of all current 
    Commission rules and guides, the Commission published a Federal 
    Register notice on April 15, 1994, 59 FR 18006, seeking comments about 
    the regulatory and economic costs and benefits of the 
    Guides.1 The Commission published a second notice on October 
    28, 1996, 61 FR 55589, setting forth a preliminary determination to 
    retain the Guides and seeking comments on several issues. Of particular 
    interest in this review proceeding was the issue of tolerances 
    recognized by the Guides for filling materials in feather and down 
    products. Section 253.6(f) of the Guides permitted the unqualified term 
    ``down'' to be used to designate a product containing the following 
    fill mixture:
    
        \1\ Comments received in response to the first Federal Register 
    notice were discussed in the second Federal Register notice. All of 
    the comments were from industry, and all supported retaining the 
    Guides.
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    80% Down Portion consisting of
    1. 70% down and plumules (minimum)
    2. 10% down fiber (maximum)
    20% Remainder Portion consisting of (any or all of the following items)
    1. Down fiber
    2. Waterfowl feather fiber
    3. Waterfowl feathers
    4. 2% maximum of nonwaterfowl feathers and nonwaterfowl feather fibers
    5. 2% maximum residue
    
        This standard created, in effect, a 30% tolerance for the down and 
    plumules content of down-filled products.
        Section 253.6(c) of the Guides addressed percentage down claims. 
    Section 253.6(c)(1) stated that a product may not be called ``100% 
    down'' or ``pure'' or ``all down'' unless the product in fact contains 
    only down without regard to any tolerance. Section 253.6(c)(2) stated 
    that a product ``should not be represented to contain a certain 
    percentage of feathers or down unless it in fact contains the stated 
    percentage with due regard to the tolerances set forth in this 
    section.'' The same section of the Guides stated in paragraph (f) that 
    ``[t]he tolerances . . . are not to be construed to permit intentional 
    adulteration.''
        All of the comments to the second Federal Register notice supported 
    retaining the Guides to maintain quality and an industry 
    standard.2 In general, the commenters recommended preserving 
    the Guides ``as is'' with suggestions that the Commission make small 
    changes to various allowances permitted by the Guides. None of the 
    comments addressed the Commission's concerns regarding deception and 
    competition.
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        \2\ The Commission's second request for public comment elicited 
    nine comments from the industry and none from consumers or consumer 
    groups: (1) J.C. Penney Company, Inc., (2) Blue Ridge Home Fashions, 
    Inc., (3) The Canadian Down and Feather Products Association, (4) 
    Pillowtex Corporation, (5) Pacific Coast Feather Company, (6) 
    American Down Association, (7) International Down and Feather 
    Testing Laboratory, (8) Eurasia Feather Inc./Down Inc., and (9) 
    Hollander Home Fashions Corp. These comments are on the public 
    record and available for viewing in Room 130 at the Federal Trade 
    Commission, 6th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, 
    D.C. 20580, from 8:30 am to 5 pm, Monday-Friday.
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        After extensive review of the Guides and their effect on the 
    feather and down industry, the Commission has decided that the Guides 
    have not promoted compliance with Section 5 of the FTC Act 3 
    and in fact may have hindered compliance. For the reasons set forth 
    below, the Commission has concluded that consumers would be better 
    served by rescission of the Guides.
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        \3\ Section 5 of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 45(a)(1) states: 
    ``Unfair methods of competition in or affecting commerce, and unfair 
    or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce, are hereby 
    declared unlawful.''
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    II. Reasons for Rescission of the Guides
    
        The Commission has decided to rescind the Guides for several 
    reasons. First, the Guides did not appear to be working as intended to 
    promote truth in labeling and advertising. The Guides' tolerances were 
    intended to accommodate the imprecise nature of processing and 
    manufacturing and were ``not to be construed to permit intentional 
    adulteration.'' Section 253.6(f). Instead, the 30% tolerance afforded 
    by the Guides appears to have become an industry manufacturing 
    standard, not simply a margin for error. The Commission understands 
    that a filling material at the edge of the tolerance for the stated 
    down content, i.e. containing 30% less down than its stated down 
    content, is referred to in the industry as ``FTC down.'' The fact that 
    the Guides have resulted in the situation where products contain 30% 
    less down than stated suggests that the Guides did not promote truth in 
    labeling or advertising and should be rescinded.
        Second, it appears that the Guides were confusing to industry 
    members attempting compliance. For example, FTC staff has received 
    queries from industry members who know the exact composition of a 
    product's filling contents, based on lab analysis, but nonetheless 
    inquire how the product should be labeled under the FTC's tolerances. 
    This situation suggests that rather than creating clarity, these Guides 
    have caused confusion in this industry.
        Third, the Guides set forth detailed standards that can be better 
    established by private standards-setting organizations or others with 
    expertise in technical measurement issues and industry practices. 
    Market forces may also effectively set standards as long as the fill 
    mixture is truthfully disclosed.
        Fourth, the Guides' content disclosure principles may have had 
    unintended anticompetitive effects, distorting consumer demand and 
    related production decisions. Because manufacturers of 70% down 
    products could advertise and label their products as ``down,'' 
    manufacturers of competing products with significantly greater down and 
    plumules content could not readily distinguish their products. For 
    example, if a product were advertised and labeled ``85% down and 
    plumules,'' it might appear inferior to a product labeled ``down.'' As 
    a result, down product producers were unlikely to bear the increased 
    cost to bring higher down content products to market, and consumers 
    were denied access to some down products that they otherwise might 
    choose.
        Fifth, the Guides provided unwarranted special treatment not given 
    to other industries. In particular, a 30% tolerance for percentage 
    claims appears overly generous when compared to the 3% tolerance for 
    blended fiber claims afforded by the Rules and Regulations under the 
    Textile Fiber Products Identification Act.4
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        \4\ 16 CFR 303.43 and 303.27, promulgated under the Textile 
    Fiber Products Identification Act, 15 U.S.C. 70-70k.
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        These Guides have not served the general purpose of Guides, which 
    is to increase industry compliance with
    
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    Section 5 of the FTC Act. Therefore, rescission is appropriate.
    
    III. The Commission's Future Enforcement Policy
    
        The rescission of the Guides does not leave the industry without 
    guidance as to how to comply with the law. Moreover, it does not signal 
    an FTC withdrawal from efforts to prevent deception in the labeling and 
    advertising of these products. The rescission of the Guides does mean, 
    however, that the FTC will no longer maintain detailed specifications 
    for the feather and down industry.
        In rescinding the Guides, the Commission directs the industry's 
    attention to the principles of law articulated in the FTC's Deception 
    Statement and pertinent Commission and court decisions on deception, 
    both of which are generally applicable to all industries.5 
    As articulated in the Deception Statement, the Commission ``will find 
    deception if there is a representation, omission, or practice that is 
    likely to mislead the consumer acting reasonably in the circumstances, 
    to the consumer's detriment.'' 6
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        \5\ Cliffdale Associates, Inc., et al., 103 F.T.C. 110, 175 
    (including Deception Statement as Appendix) (1984).
        \6\ Id. at 176.
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        Applying these principles, and in the absence of further evidence 
    of consumer interpretation of unqualified ``down'' claims, the 
    Commission expects down content to reflect the use of appropriately 
    calibrated, modern mass production techniques. The Commission 
    understands that, at the present time, application of those production 
    techniques should yield down content of more than 70% for products 
    labeled ``down.'' With respect to percentage down claims, producers of 
    down products generally have acknowledged that it is quite practicable, 
    using present production methods, to produce down blend goods having a 
    down content that is plus or minus 2-5% of a targeted number, rather 
    than a 30% variation. Other aspects of down product composition 
    addressed in the former Guides also should be governed by deception 
    law, market forces, and the application of modern production 
    techniques.
        Rescission of the Guides should provide greater incentives for 
    industry itself to create effective standards and develop methods of 
    product differentiation. The Commission hopes that market forces will 
    foster truthful labeling and advertising practices. Industry members 
    are encouraged to be vigilant in monitoring both their own and their 
    competitors' practices. If, in the future, deceptive practices prove to 
    be a problem in this industry, further FTC enforcement actions may be 
    warranted.
    
    List of Subjects in 16 CFR Part 253
    
        Advertising, Labeling, Filling Material, Trade Practices.
    
    PART 253--[REMOVED]
    
        The Commission, under authority of sections 5(a)(1) and 6(g) of the 
    Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. 45(a)(1) and 46(g), amends 
    Chapter I of Title 16 of the Code of Federal Regulations by removing 
    part 253.
    
        By direction of the Commission.
    Benjamin I. Berman,
    Acting Secretary.
    [FR Doc. 98-22445 Filed 8-19-98; 8:45 am]
    BILLING CODE 6750-01-P
    
    
    

Document Information

Effective Date:
8/20/1998
Published:
08/20/1998
Department:
Federal Trade Commission
Entry Type:
Rule
Action:
Rescission of the Guides for the Feather and Down Products Industry; announcement of enforcement policy.
Document Number:
98-22445
Dates:
August 20, 1998.
Pages:
44553-44555 (3 pages)
PDF File:
98-22445.pdf
CFR: (1)
16 CFR 253