Apparel Brand In Hot Water For Swapping ‘Made In China’ Tags For ‘Made In USA’
Whoops. Lions Not Sheep, a Utah-based firm infamous for peddling pro-Trump apparel, has been fined over US$200,000 by the Federal Trade Commission for falsely labeling its products as being made in the United States.
According to a statement, the shop’s owner, Sean Whalen, was found to have replaced ‘Made in China’ tags with fake ‘Made In USA’ labels. It is now being ordered to stop making bogus claims and be transparent about its foreign production.
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The FTC revealed the brand had purchased its goods from manufacturers based in China, Colombia, and Bangladesh before shipping it back to the US to be printed, embroidered, and tagged.
As per Deseret News, the shop’s false claims came to light when Whalen posted a video on social media saying that he could “conceal the fact” that the products were made elsewhere by replacing the original tags with ones stating ‘Made in the USA’, ‘Made in America’, ‘Are your products USA Made?’ and ‘100% AMERICAN MADE’.
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Going forward, the agency says Whalen and Lions Not Sheep “must stop claiming that products are made in the United States unless they can show that the product’s final assembly or processing—and all significant processing—takes place here and that all or virtually all ingredients or components of the product are made and sourced here.”
[via Deseret News and Federal Trade Commission, cover image via Toxawww | Dreamstime.com]
