The National Advertising Division (NAD) ruled on January 11, 2019, that water filter maker Advanced Purification Engineering Corp. (APEC) is not responsible for Made in USA claims that customers made in reviews on third-party sites such as Amazon.
The challenge
Competitor Aquasana Inc. challenged APEC’s claims, including “Made in the USA” and “Built in the USA,” plus customer reviews saying the systems were made in the USA. APEC designs and assembles its reverse osmosis systems in the USA, but they include significant foreign parts.
In a March 2017 closing letter, the FTC had found that APEC’s systems “incorporate significant imported parts,” and APEC agreed to qualify its claims.
What NAD decided
- The “critical question” is whether the advertiser controls the messages in customer reviews. NAD found APEC did not.
- APEC’s silence did not endorse the reviews. It generally answered only negative reviews, with a boilerplate request to contact the company.
- APEC had changed its Amazon product description from “built in the USA” to “designed and assembled” in the USA.
- NAD rejected Aquasana’s request that APEC delist and relist products to erase old reviews, noting some products had about 1,000 reviews, most of which said nothing about origin.
- NAD found APEC’s “U.S. manufacturer” claims in search results were supported.
NAD cautioned APEC “against interacting with any such reviews in any manner which may seem to validate an unsupported domestic origin claim.” A manufacturer that echoes a reviewer’s claim becomes responsible for backing it up.
FAQ
Who challenged APEC?
Aquasana Inc., a competing water filtration company.
Was APEC responsible for customer reviews saying “Made in USA”?
No. NAD found APEC did not control those reviews and had not echoed them.
How does APEC now describe its systems on Amazon?
As designed and assembled in the USA.
Source & credit
Source: NAD case #6238, Advanced Purification Engineering Corporation decision, January 11, 2019.
Also: Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz: “When Are Advertisers Responsible For Unsupported Claims Made By Consumers on Third Party Sites?”; Hunton via Lexology: “NAD Finds Responsibility for ‘Made In USA’ Does Not Extend to Third-Party Customer Reviews”.