Lab-Grown Diamond Makers Seen As Winners In New FTC Guidelines

(IDEX Online) – After considerable consultation and deliberation, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has published its revised Jewelry Guides which appear to give a boost to the lab-grown diamond sector.

The guides widen the definition of what can be called a diamond to bring in those grown in a lab or factory as diamonds can also be grown in a lab, the FTC said, while emphasising that this needs to be clearly stated.

Previously, the FTC Guides approved laboratory-created, laboratory-grown, [manufacturer-name]-created, and synthetic for non-mined diamonds. Diamond industry organizations have used the word "synthetic" to describe stones made in factories.

Now the FTC is no longer recommending synthetic, and also says that manufacturers of such stones can use other terms if they “clearly and conspicuously convey that the product is not a mined stone.”

Lab-grown diamond makers had requested that "synthetic" be disallowed , claiming that the term was used in a bid to lead consumers to believe that such stones with stimulants.

The FTC declined to accept terms including [manufacturer-name]-grown, foundry, created, and grown.

The FTC appeared to be walking a fine line between the factory-made and mined diamond sectors, providing extensive footnotes to illustrate that the views of industry players had been taken into account as well as studies on consumer perceptions relating to terminology.

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