Improper use of terms such as "gold filled" or "rolled gold plate
69 F.T.C. 1234 · June 18, 1966 · Digest No. 61
source volume section (69 F.T.C. 1234)
Text is machine-OCR of the printed volume and may contain errors. Advisory opinions are the Commission's views on proposed conduct, not binding orders.
No. 61. Improper use of terms such as "gold filled" or "rolled gold plate.
The Federa1 Trade Commission has informed a marketer of jewelry that it would be improper to use terms such as "goldfil1ed" or "rol1ed g01d plate" in describing gold fil1ed jewelry articles which are electroplated with nickel and finished with either gold flash or g01d electroplate. The Commission said that a purchaser of such an article would not get the type of performance expected from gold fil1ed articles because points of wear would expose the coating of white nickel at a very early stage and the ornamenta1 value wou1d be seriously reduced.
Being electroplated with nickel " the Commission said, the gold fil1ed material would not serve its function and a person buying the article on that basis would not get what he had been led to believe he was getting. In fact, Rule 22(b) (4) of the Trade Practice Ru1es for the Jewelry Industry specifical1y contemplates that the surface coating, not the inner portion, be made of 'gold fil1ed' or ' rol1ed gold plate " (File No. 643 7024, released June 18, 1966.