An Overview of the FTC's New and Improved Green Guides

Posted by D. Daniel Sokol

Randal Shaheen and Amy Ralph Mudge (Venable) provide An Overview of the FTC's New and Improved Green Guides.

ABSTRACT: The Federal Trade Commission released the final version of its revised Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims (2012 Green Guides) on October 11, 2012—almost two years to the day from when the FTC proposed them, and some twenty years after its prior Green Guides were first issued in 1992. The Prior Green Guides themselves followed on the heels of various regulatory enforcement efforts undertaken by the FTC and state attorneys general, as well as increasing (and often inconsistent) state efforts to regulate specific claims—such as a product’s being “biodegradable” or “recycled” properties—that prompted many companies to call upon the FTC to provide a consistent set of trade regulation rules or guidance.