The FTC Jewelry Guides are guidance from the US Federal Trade Commission on how to describe jewellery without misleading buyers. They cover precious metals, gold plating, gemstones and pearls. Plating disclosure rules in the guides say you must not overstate the metal in a plated piece, and that terms like 'gold plated', 'gold filled' and 'vermeil' carry specific meanings.
The guides are not a statute, but the FTC can act under the FTC Act against deceptive claims, and the guides show how it will read your wording. Check the current text with the FTC or a US lawyer before you rely on this summary.
What do the Jewelry Guides cover?
The guides are in the US Code of Federal Regulations at 16 CFR Part 23. They apply to anyone who sells jewellery in the US, including importers, online sellers and marketplace sellers, not just manufacturers.
Because the guides are guidance, the safest course is to ask a US lawyer or the FTC's business guidance pages how a particular phrase will be read. Treat the wording on your packaging, website, marketplace listing and social media as one claim, since the FTC looks at the overall impression.
They address the following areas for jewellery:
- Precious metal marks and quality, such as karat and sterling.
- Gold-plated, gold-filled, gold-flashed and vermeil descriptions.
- Gemstone, pearl and synthetic stone terms.
- Disclosure of treatments, imitations and laboratory-created stones.
What are the plating disclosure rules?
The principle is that a name for a coating must tell the buyer what they get. The guides set minimum thickness or content for some terms, and they say that a coating below the minimum must be described as something else, such as 'gold flashed', and not as 'gold plated'.
Vermeil, for example, is understood to mean a gold coating on a sterling silver base, with a minimum thickness set out in the guides. A gold-coated brass piece cannot be sold as vermeil.
Our guide to flash plating, gold plating and vermeil explains the differences in manufacturing terms, and gold plating microns explained covers thickness.
Look up the exact thresholds in the current guides rather than trusting a list from a supplier.
What this means for your supplier brief
Your supplier controls what goes on the piece and the label, so write the claim you intend to make into your specification. State the base metal, the plating metal, the thickness you need and the test method.
Then confirm the product matches. A plating thickness test on production samples is the evidence behind your claim.
Watch for supplier packaging and catalogues that already carry claims such as 'gold plated' or 'sterling'. If they are wrong, they become your problem in the US market.
More guidance on honest wording is in how to describe jewellery plating honestly in listings and metal and plating descriptions on labels.
The same logic applies to stones. Under the guides, a laboratory-created or imitation stone should not be sold under a name that suggests a natural one without a clear qualifier. If your range includes cubic zirconia, glass or resin stones, name them plainly. Our guide to cubic zirconia grades helps you choose accurate terms.
Next step
Write down every metal or plating claim you plan to make, check each against the current guides, and get plating tests that support it. If you want help matching a specification to a supplier who can meet it, book a free sourcing review.