WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will host a public roundtable Oct. 1 to analyze proposed changes to its Care Labeling Rule.
In September 2012, the FTC sought feedback on potential updates to the Rule on Care Labeling of Textile Wearing Apparel and Certain Piece Goods, which requires manufacturers and importers to attach care labels on garments and certain piece goods with instructions for dry cleaning, washing, bleaching, drying and ironing.
Based on the feedback the FTC received, one topic the roundtable will discuss is a proposal to allow manufacturers and importers to include a wetcleaning label on garments, if it can be professionally wet cleaned, and whether the FTC should require wetcleaning instructions for such garments.
“It will also address the cost of substantiating wetcleaning instructions, the availability of wet cleaning, customer awareness of wet cleaning and the content of labels providing a wetcleaning instruction,” says the FTC.
Differences between ASTM International (American Society for Testing and Materials) and both the 2005 and 2012 International Organization for Standardization (ISO) care symbols will also be discussed, specifically, “whether labels should identify ISO symbols as such if used to comply with the Rule; the change in the meaning of the circle P symbol in the ASTM system; and consumer understanding of symbols,” the Commission says.
Other matters to be discussed include “the absence of ASTM and ISO symbols for solvents other than perchloroethylene and petroleum [and] how to clarify what constitutes a reasonable basis for care instructions.”
The roundtable is scheduled for 9:15 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. local time Oct. 1 in the FTC’s Satellite Building Conference Center, 601 New Jersey Ave. NW, Washington.
Pre-registration is not necessary to attend, but is encouraged so that staff may better plan the event. To pre-register, e-mail your name and affiliation to [email protected].
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].