The Federal Trade Commission recently closed an investigation into whether Antigravity Batteries overstated the extent to which its products were made in the United States.  The FTC said that some of the company's materials were not updated in a timely manner to reflect shifts to overseas production.

The FTC's "Made in USA" standard says that, if you're going to make an unqualified claim that a product is made in the United States, the product must be "all or virtually all" made there.  

The FTC's closing letter emphasized two points of interest.  The company agreed to take significant efforts to ensure that its distributors made truthful claims.  The FTC said that the company's efforts included "making diligent efforts to ensure the accuracy of distributor claims, including notifying distributors that Antigravity Batteries would not fulfill any additional orders until distributors updated their marketing materials."   

The FTC also indicated that, when selling multiple products, if some are made in the United States and some are not, "marketing materials should clearly differentiate U.S.-origin products from imported products."  The FTC also said that, "Antigravity Batteries should take care not to make overly broad U.S.-origin claims on marketing materials that refer to multiple products." 

Notwithstanding recent discussions at the FTC about whether the agency is being tough enough on marketers that make deceptive "Made in USA" Claims, this closing letter, which was issued about a week ago, suggests that the Commissioners haven't given up on closing letters as a way to resolve some of these matters.  

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