Share
For years, lab-grown diamond sellers habitually dubbed their products
sustainable and
eco-friendly
. However, in 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent letters to several companies warning them not to use those terms.
The issue wasn’t just that the companies provided almost no information about the eco-impact of their processes—though that probably didn’t help. It was the language that they used, what the FTC called “general environmental benefit claims,” which are forbidden under its Green Guides.
“It is rare that a product can have an environmental benefit in all the ways that consumers might take away from a general claim,” said FTC attorney Robert Frisby.