This story has been updated to reflect a comment from Walmart.
Following a federal probe in October, retail giant Walmart(WMT)was forced to wipe its website clean of misleading “Made in USA” logos. But a new investigation says that Walmart has continued to use the label on products made outside of the country.
Ad watchdog group Truth in Advertising reported on Tuesday that Walmart’s website is still “replete with false and deceptive U.S.-origin claims.” The group compiled over 100 of these cases from June 2016.
The group reported baseball caps and safety vests that were labelled “Made in the U.S.A.,” yet were in fact produced in China. In some cases, products had parts made outside of the U.S., but was likewise labelled “Made in the U.S.A.”
The Federal Trade Commission initiated a probe into the retailer last year, after Truth in Advertising said Walmart had mislabelled over a hundred products as “Made in the U.S.A.” Walmart dodged government action then by taking voluntary steps to “prevent consumer deception,” the FTC said in a letter. That included clearing its website of the logos, and making more detailed disclosures about what percent of the product was made in the states.
At the time, Walmart said that a small percentage of items had been mislabelled due to a coding error.
Truth in Advertising said it alerted the FTC and Walmart regarding its latest findings.
Walmart has been trying to source more and more U.S.-made products in a bid to improve its image as a corporate citizen. Consumers also seem to prefer U.S.-based goods. A 2015 Consumer Reports survey found that 80% of Americans prefer items made in the states.
“Yesterday we were able to get hundreds of businesses with U.S.-made products an opportunity to land their items on Walmart.com,” a spokesperson for Walmart told Coins2Day. “It’s just another way we can give our customers great products while also supporting our commitment to purchase an additional $250 billion in products that support American jobs.”
