Dynamic Accident Lawyers: Citizens of Humanity Accused of False Made In The USA Labeling

A deceptive Made in the USA labeling class action lawsuit is currently underway in a California court, claiming upscale denim manufacturer Citizens of Humanity labels their designer jeans as American made, but actually imports foreign parts for their jeans including fabric, thread, rivets and buttons.

The Made in the USA lawsuit claims consumers purchased Citizens of Humanity jeans at Macy’s Inc. and Shopbob.com (a subsidiary of Amazon.com) under the pretenses that they were purchasing American made jeans but were instead falsely labeled as “Made in the U.S.A.”

Lead plaintiff Louise Clark argues that it is undisputed that Citizens violated California’s Unfair Competition Law and its “Made in U.S.A.” statute, saying the companies had acknowledged that a $218 pair of jeans purchased in San Diego County contained foreign-made parts and were not American made.

Clark claims in the Made in the USA lawsuit that Citizens acknowledged that “Made in the USA” appears on the outer label of some of the denim brand’s Boyfriend jeans with parts manufactured outside the U.S., which she said triggers their liability under California law.

“Consumers are particularly vulnerable to these deceptive and fraudulent practices,” the Citizens Made in the USA lawsuit states. “Most consumers possess very limited knowledge of the likelihood that products, including the component parts therein, claimed to be made in the United States are in fact made in foreign countries. This is a material factor in many individuals’ purchasing decisions, as they believe they are supporting American companies and American jobs.”

Consumers generally believe that American made clothing or products labeled as “Made in the U.S.A.” are also of higher quality than their foreign-manufactured counterparts.

“Due to defendants’ scheme to defraud the market, members of the general public were fraudulently induced to purchase defendants’ products at inflated prices,” the Citizens of Humanity lawsuit states.

Made in the USA Labeling Regulations

California and federal laws are designed to protect consumers from this type of false representation and predatory conduct. Under federal law, “virtually all” of the components in products with “Made in the USA” labels must come from the United States.

This means that “all significant parts, processing and labor that go into the product must be of U.S. origin. Products should not contain any – or should contain only negligible – foreign content,” according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

While federal law gives companies some leeway when labeling their products, certain states have stricter regulations. California, for instance, has the Business & Professions code, which mandates that:

“It is unlawful for any person, firm, corporation or association to sell or offer for sale in this state any merchandise on which merchandise or on its container there appears the words ‘Made in the USA,’ ‘Made in America,’ ‘USA,’ or similar words when the merchandise or any article, unit or part thereof, has been entirely or substantially made, manufactured or produced outside of the United States.”

Essentially, this means that all parts of a product sold in California and labeled “Made in the USA” must come from America.

The Citizens of Humanity Class Action Lawsuit is Louise Clark v. Citizens of Humanity LLC et al., Case No. 3:14-cv-01404, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

Join a Free Citizens of Humanity ‘Made in the USA’ Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you purchased one or more Citizens of Humanity apparel products in California in the past four years based, in part, on a “Made in the USA” label, you may be able to seek compensation by joining a class action lawsuit investigation.

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