FTC offers opinion on accuracy of thread counts

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 8/23/2005 11:41:00 AM

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Trade Commission’s Division of Enforcement recently offered an opinion on the accurate reporting of thread counts in response to a letter from the National Textile Association.

According to James Kohm, associate director for enforcement at the Federal Trade Commission, “Consumers could be deceived or misled by the practice of stating an inflated thread count, achieved by multiplying the actual count by the number of plies within the yarn.”

Kohm added that a non-deceptive way to disclose thread count and yarn ply would be to state the count followed by ply, as in: 300 thread count, two-ply yarn. “A representation of 600 thread count for this same product would likely mislead consumers about the quality of the product being purchased,” he said.

Currently there is no enforcement of the opinion, but the statement of tread counts is governed by Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits deceptive acts or practices.