According to the FTC’s complaint, first announced in January, “Instant Brands faced increased demand for its glass measuring cups in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when consumer interest in home baking spiked.” Unable to meet consumer demand, from March 2021 to May 2022, Instant Brands began producing some of its measuring cups in China.
“Consumers rely on marketers to make truthful ‘Made in USA’ claims,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “If marketers move their manufacturing outside the United States, even temporarily, they must update their advertising to make it accurate.”
Under the finalized FTC order, in addition to paying a $129,416 monetary penalty, Instant Brands has agreed to the following requirements about the claims it makes:
- Restriction on unqualified claims: The company will be prohibited from making unqualified U.S.-origin claims for any product, unless it can show that the product’s final assembly or processing—and all significant processing—takes place in the United States, and that all or virtually all of the product’s ingredients or components are made and sourced in the United States.
- Requirement for qualified claims: The company must include in any qualified ‘Made in USA’ claims a clear and conspicuous disclosure about the extent to which the product contains foreign parts, ingredients or components, or processing.
- Requirement for assembly claims: The company must also ensure, when claiming a product is assembled in the United States, that it is last substantially transformed in the United States, its principal assembly takes place in the United States, and U.S. assembly operations are substantial.
The Commission vote to finalize the order was 4-0. 
Jaclyn Jaeger is a contributing editor at Compliance Chief 360° and a freelance business writer based in Manchester, New Hampshire.