— A class action lawsuit alleges the ACDelco "Made in USA" claim is false, inducing consumers to purchase auto parts marketed and sold by General Motors but made in China.
According to the ACDelco lawsuit, consumers pay premium prices believing the auto parts are made in the USA when those parts may have been made in China.
The class action lawsuit includes:
"All persons who purchased in the United States an ACDelco product in packaging displaying “Made in USA” for end use and not for resale, where all significant parts and processing that go into the product are not of U.S. origin."
The plaintiff says in October 2020 he purchased an ACDelco automatic transmission filter packaged in a box that said “Made in USA." The plaintiff says he decided to purchase the ACDelco transmission filter instead of another brand because of the Made in USA claim.
But according to the lawsuit, when he opened the box of the transmission filter he was "outraged" to discover that stamped onto the surface of the product was the phrase, “Made in China.”
The class action alleges no other parts of the filter were stamped with “Made in USA” or any other country.
"Even if the “Made in China” inscription on the surface of Plaintiff’s transmission filter applied only to the single plastic housing piece that bears the inscription, the “Made in USA” claim still fails the “All or Virtually All” standard and is unlawful, deceptive, and misleading" — ACDelco class action lawsuit
Made in USA Claims, According to the FTC
By General Motors making the Made in USA claim, the company allegedly violated the “All or Virtually All” standard created by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
According to the class action lawsuit, the FTC has concluded “Made in USA” claims are important to consumers.
The lawsuit says the FTC commissioned studies in 1995 into how consumers perceive USA origin claims, finding consumers expect a product advertised as “Made in USA” to be assembled in the USA and all or virtually all of the product be made of parts from the USA.
The FTC established the “All or Virtually All” standard for “Made in USA” claims in 1997, saying “Made in USA” means, “all significant parts and processing that go into the product are of U.S. origin, i.e., where there is only a de minimis, or negligible amount of foreign content.”
In addition, the product must be assembled in the USA.
Consumers allegedly wouldn't have purchased ACDelco parts if they would have known the parts weren't made in the USA, or at the least consumers wouldn't have paid as much as they did for the products.
The plaintiff alleges GM's “Made in USA” claims are unlawful, deceptive and violate warranty laws.
The ACDelco "Made in USA" class action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio: Norman Husar, v. General Motors LLC.
The plaintiff is represented by the Dann Law Firm, of Ohio, and Zimmerman Law Office, P.C., of Illinois.
