Pyrex, a company that’s usually laureled on our blog as an American-made kitchen mainstay, falsely labeled a product “Made in USA.” Now the company’s paying the price.
Pyrex measuring cups are a beloved kitchen staple in our household. They’ve seen daily use since we bought them years ago and somehow have weathered the maltreatment of our toddlers’ baking experiments and our overfilled dishwasher.
When we bought the cups, we knew we were buying Made in America quality, and they’ve lived up to that reputation. The “Made in USA” label was a major deciding factor in our purchase amidst the the flood of random Chinese-made goods that increasingly flood my Amazon search results.
Unfortunately, Amazon customers who sought out Made in USA Pyrex measuring cups for their own home during the pandemic were not as lucky.
Back in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when everyone was in the throes of sourdough bread mania and otherwise obsessively baking, Instant Brands claims that it experienced a surge in consumer demand for its glass measuring cups. By early 2021, the company alleges that its U.S. factories could not supply enough product, and so they turned to China to manufacture Pyrex measuring cups from March 2021 to May 2022. These Chinese-made Pyrex measuring cups were then sold on Amazon.com. Now, as disappointing as that choice to contract manufacturers in a country notorious for forced labor violations is, that’s not why Pyrex came under the Federal Trade Commission’s scrutiny.
The really disturbing part of this tale is that Instant Brands falsely claimed that all its Pyrex glassware was Made in USA, asserting that its products were “American as Apple Pie” and boasted of the company’s “made in USA heritage” while selling its Made in China cups to unsuspecting buyers.
“Consumers rely on marketers to make truthful ‘Made in USA’ claims,” said the director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection Samuel Levine back in 2023 when the agency announced a proposed order in response to Instant Brand’s fraudulent country-of-origin claims. “If marketers move their manufacturing outside the United States, even temporarily, they must update their advertising to make it accurate.”
Significantly, the FTC not only ordered Instant Brands to cease its phony Made in USA claims but also imposed a monetary judgment that requires Instant Brands to send 10,259 payments to people who purchased the Chinese-made Pyrex cups. That’s a payout of more than $88,000 going directly back to consumers. However, Instant Brands sold more than 110,000 units of its imported measuring cup sets while cloaking their products in false “Made in USA” claims. If you bought a Pyrex measuring cup set expecting them to be “Made in USA” but received items marked “Made in China,” you might be eligible for a refund. Check the FTC’s FAQ page for more information about refund payments.
Want to shine a light on the American manufacturers that are putting the hard work in to keep their products made right here? Help us share these companies in the Alliance for American Manufacturing’s 2024 Made in America Holiday Gift Guide. We’re picking American-made gift ideas from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Send your “Made in USA” faves to [email protected] before the list’s grand reveal on Nov. 20.