FTC compliance, informational
Etsy and Made in USA claims, an FTC checklist.
What the FTC Made in USA Labeling Rule commonly expects of Etsy sellers in 2026, where the line between unqualified and qualified claims falls, and the patterns most often reviewed by enforcement.
Why this matters more in 2026
The Made in USA Labeling Rule is not new. The FTC finalised it in 2021, and the underlying all-or-virtually-all standard has been agency policy for decades. What changed in the past two years is the price tag. The maximum civil penalty was raised to $53,088 per violation in January 2025. An April 2025 Executive Order directs the FTC to prioritise enforcement and explicitly contemplates rules that would require online marketplaces to verify country-of-origin claims made by their sellers.
Class-action filings have moved in lockstep. By December 2025, at least twenty consumer class actions had been filed alleging false Made-in-USA claims, roughly three times the seven cases filed in all of 2024. These suits target small and medium-sized sellers as well as large brands. The legal cost of defending one of these cases is meaningful for a small Etsy shop even if the seller ultimately wins.
The all-or-virtually-all standard, in plain English
An unqualified Made in USA claim, such as Made in USA, American made, USA made, or 100% American, commonly expects the product to be:
- Final assembly or processing in the United States.
- All significant processing in the United States.
- All-or-virtually-all ingredients or components made and sourced in the United States.
The traditional benchmark used in FTC guidance has been roughly 95% US content by cost. A handmade leather wallet whose leather is sourced from Italy, hardware imported from China, and thread imported from Mexico typically does not meet the standard, even if all assembly happens in the United States. Adding the imported components together commonly leaves the overall US content well below the 95% benchmark.
Qualified claims, the safer path
A qualified claim states the truth about origin without the unqualified Made-in-USA framing. Qualified claims are commonly acceptable when the qualifying language is truthful and prominent (the same place and similar size as the claim itself). Examples:
Component leather sourced from Italy.
Same product, qualified claim.
Sterling silver imported, hand-formed in the US.
Specific qualifier names the imported component.
Wax base sourced overseas, fragrance imported.
Disclosed sourcing, no unqualified claim.
Recent enforcement actions, in brief
The largest civil penalty under the Made in USA rule to date was the $3M Williams-Sonoma settlement in April 2024. An agricultural equipment company paid $2M in 2024. Cumulative civil penalties since August 2021 are above $4.3M, with the per-violation cap raised to $53,088 in January 2025. The FTC declared July 2025 Made in the USA month and sent formal warning letters to large marketplaces with hyperlinks to specific listings, which is a strong tell about where future enforcement is heading.
For an individual Etsy seller, the more concrete near-term risks are class-action consumer suits and platform-level enforcement once the FTC's marketplace-verification language lands as a finalised rule. Etsy and Amazon have not yet announced their verification processes, but the trajectory is clear: in 2026 to 2027, marketplaces are expected to take a more active role in policing Made-in-USA claims at the listing level.
What Etsy and Amazon do today
Etsy and Amazon do not currently police Made-in-USA claims at the listing level the way they police IP and GPSR. There is no Made-in-USA flag in Etsy's seller flow that triggers enforcement. The risk today is downstream of the marketplaces, in FTC enforcement and in private class actions. The risk tomorrow, after marketplace-verification rules land, is upstream and immediate, with listings expected to be auto-flagged and removed.
The product-attributes mismatch pattern
Stallscore's compliance pillar looks for one specific high-confidence pattern: a Made-in-USA-style claim in the title or description, paired with a non-US declared country of origin in the listing's attributes (or no declared country of origin at all, paired with descriptive language indicating imported components).
When that pattern fires, the pre-flight does not assert the listing is non-compliant. It asks the seller to verify. Many genuine sellers ship products from the United States with most US content; many sellers with the same wording have imported components without realising the FTC standard is set at 95% US content by cost.
Common patterns Stallscore looks for
- An unqualified Made-in-USA-style phrase in the title or description.
- A declared country of origin attribute that is not the United States.
- Descriptive language inside the listing that implies imported components (such as "imported leather," "from Japan," "European cotton") paired with an unqualified Made-in-USA claim.
When at least one of these patterns matches, the pre-flight returns a finding asking you to either qualify the claim, remove the unqualified version, or document your supply chain to confirm the all-or-virtually-all standard is met.
Run a free pre-flight on your listing.
Paste an Etsy URL, get an informational review across title, photos, and risk patterns including Made-in-USA claim consistency. No signup, no email, no payment.
Run a free pre-flightFrequent seller questions
Is "handmade in the USA" the same as "Made in USA"?
The FTC commonly treats them as equivalent unqualified claims unless the qualifier is truthful and prominent. "Handmade in USA from imported leather" is qualified. "Handmade in USA" without further qualification commonly invites the same review as "Made in USA."
What about "Designed in USA"?
"Designed in USA" is commonly considered acceptable when the design work happened in the United States and the listing does not also imply manufacture in the United States. Pairing "Designed in USA" with "made overseas" or with a clear country of origin attribute is a common path.
I really am Made in USA. How do I document it?
Sellers commonly maintain a simple bill-of-materials spreadsheet listing every significant component, its source country, and its cost. The spreadsheet sits alongside supplier invoices. The all-or-virtually-all standard typically expects roughly 95% US content by cost. The documentation does not need to be filed with anyone, but it is what counsel commonly asks for if a class-action notice or FTC inquiry arrives.
Can I just say "USA-made" instead of "Made in USA"?
The FTC commonly treats "USA-made," "American-made," "100% American," "All-American," and similar phrases as equivalent unqualified claims. Phrasing variation does not change the underlying standard.
Does this apply on Amazon, eBay, and Shopify?
Yes. The FTC rule is federal and applies to all sellers regardless of platform. Amazon's Brand Registry has been increasingly active in challenging unqualified claims since 2024. eBay's Made-in-USA category attribute is matched against item-specifics. Shopify storefronts operate under the same rule with no platform-level policing.