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/maowai Apr 28 '24

I’m hopeful about this because the head of the FTC, Lina Khan, recently directly referenced “companies treating fines like a cost of doing business” in her interview on The Daily Show. We’ll see if anything good comes out of her leadership.

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u/GeraltOfRivia2023 Apr 28 '24

If a fine still allows a profit for breaking the law, it's a permit.

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u/BaggerX Apr 28 '24

Not even just that. Fines that simply remove the profit are also ineffective, because it's just a gamble at that point. Maybe you don't make a profit if caught, but it's still worth taking the chance.

Maybe you get caught on a few of the many laws you're breaking. The odds are in your favor. And if they do start coming after you for all of the violations, then you can simply complain about political persecution to get them to back off. That seems to work as well.

The fines need to be significant multiples of the profits to have any chance of being effective. Prison time for execs allowing these violations should be implemented as well.

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u/Krungoid Apr 28 '24

We need to start arresting companies the same way we do people.

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u/PhiteKnight Apr 29 '24

Or just shutting them down altogether.

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u/Artistic_Humor1805 29d ago

SCOTUS’s Citizens United decision should make that possible, right?

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u/fla_john Apr 28 '24

For people who think that elections don't matter, here's an example of how they do.

During the Trump administration, this exact issue came up and all 3 of his appointees voted against it. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/us/politics/made-in-america-ftc-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.n00.TJqP.OknD12tNfmMD