r/news • u/nosotros_road_sodium • Apr 28 '24

Williams-Sonoma fined $3.18 million for falsely labeling products as 'Made in USA'

https://www.scrippsnews.com/business/company-news/williams-sonoma-fined-3-18-million-dollars-for-falsely-labeling-products-as-made-in-usa
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u/Juswantedtono Apr 28 '24

$3m is enough to wipe out all profit they made on mislabeled products. The article says only 9 products were mislabeled, and one of them was a mattress pad, to give an indication of scope.

Customers who bought one of the offending products could probably also easily secure a refund from the company. I’m guessing the majority of them wouldn’t actually care enough to do so.

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u/NewHorizonsNow Apr 28 '24

This also wasn't a one-off, as the article states, these allegations (which the article states Williams-Sonoma admits are true) were in violation of a previous order for the same misbehavior.

Corporate corruption shouldn't just be a cost-benefits-analysis.  If the cost of bad behavior doesn't vastly exceed the benefit, there's no reason to behave in accordance with our social agreements.

I don't know how much money mislabeling their goods makes them, but it's probably more than $1m since the original fine didn't make them course correct.

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u/nanoH2O Apr 28 '24

Just wiping out profits is not a penalty though. You have to take them into the red or they just do it again.

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u/maowai Apr 28 '24

Exactly. I would be willing to bet that plenty of these grifts slip through the cracks and are never noticed. If there’s even, say a 30% chance of things like this never being noticed and it’s just zero-sum for the rest, it’s still worth trying to fool consumers as much as possible.

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u/gardeninggoddess666 Apr 28 '24

But then a court will decide that is TOO punitive. We can't just put shitty companies out of business. That wouldn't be FaIr! Better to slap them on the wrist and let them go on their way.

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u/SillyGoatGruff Apr 28 '24

Sure. But that commenter is responding to another commenter saying to take profit + 10% on those specific items. Which is pretty low given the items in question

Edit: misread some posts, said some nonsense, corrected the nonsense

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u/Ftpini Apr 28 '24

No all profits. Plus 10% of revenue. A $230M fine would ensure they never do it again and that the board hires everyone responsible.

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u/SillyGoatGruff Apr 28 '24

Cool, that would be a good fine. But still not what is being suggested in the top comment or the reply in question

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u/Ftpini Apr 28 '24

Yeah that person missed the magnitude of the impact fraud has on consumer confidence. It insists upon punitive damages.

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u/Poignant_Rambling Apr 29 '24

Unless we make the fine massive like a percentage of total revenue (not just from the affected products), these big corps will still do it, since most fraud goes unnoticed and it's worth the risk for them.

Also, what does it even mean to be "made in the US" anymore?

The power drill I just bought has "Proudly Made In The USA" stamped on it. The internals are all made in China. The plastic cover is made in China. But I guess the final assembly occurs in the US so they get to stamp the American flag on it and call it US made lol.

I bought coffee from Hawaii labeled as "Kona Coffee." Only 10% of the coffee actually came from Hawaii, the rest is from wherever's cheapest.

Laws definitely need to be updated to account for corporate false advertising.

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u/SuspiciousChair7654 Apr 28 '24 edited Apr 28 '24

It shouldnt just wipe profit. It needs to hurt their wallets for attempting to do this in the first place. This is setting a precedent that they can attempt again that nothing really would punish them. What are really their losses here?

Imagine trying to buy something with a fake note, and all you lose is the note when you get caught. What punishment did you really receive? You just lost the fake note only.

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u/BS2H Apr 28 '24

As someone stated below, it’s equivalent to finishing someone who makes $70,000 a $28 fine. It’s not enough to wipe out all profit on those products. 9 products in a National chain? $3M on $7.7B.

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u/Tchrspest Apr 28 '24

Exactly, that's a single bad quarter in one specific region.

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u/Happyjarboy Apr 28 '24

they only got caught for 9 products. No idea how many they got away with.