Walmart, the world‘s largest retailer, has been forced to remove the “Made in USA” logo from its website, after it was discovered that products were falsely claiming to have been manufactured in the USA.
The logo was removed from the chain‘s ecommerce site after the Federal Trade Commission revealed misleading advertising. The FTC did not press charges on the company due to their immediate cooperation.
FTC noted examples of products that exemplify the malpractice of Walmart‘s advertising technique include a sandwich bag which was made in Thailand and a toy car that was assembled in the US with a few imported parts that included a Chinese steering wheel.
The FTC began the investigation into Walmart‘s product labelling in June after Truth in Advertising, a consumer regulator, informed the FTC that product descriptions on over 200 items were unreliable.
The tip off claimed that the retail giant‘s products were not delivered to them with official product origins and contained warnings that were unclassified, The Financial Times reported.
The neighbourhood market retailer has received harsh criticism over its business practices, and in light of this scandal has pledged to buy $250bn of the US-made products over the course of 10 years, in an attempt to improve the reputation it so readily destroyed with false labelling.
It is understood that the investigation was taken up voluntarily by the FTC in order to prevent consumer deception.
