Some of you may have realized that our diamond supplies are going to be severely curtailed within the next 15 years if demand is going to continue to grow in emerging countries as estimated. This puts the pressure on the industry to come up with some viable alternatives.
On Tuesday, the FTC announced that there is insufficient evidence to establish that the qualified use of the term 'cultured diamonds' is deceptive or unfair when describing lab-created gemstones.
However, the JVC along with 10 jewelry trade associations supported by consumer perception surveys, signed a petition requesting the FTC to amend their guidelines to state that it would be "deceptive or unfair" to apply 'cultured' to describe laboratory-created gemstones, even when the man-made gemstones possess essentially the same optical, chemical, and physical properties of natural, mined gemstones.
Present guidelines advise marketers to use specific qualifying language to clarify the origin of laboratory created gemstones, however, after reviewing the petition, the FTC declined to amend these guidelines. Their reasoning; "Even if the surveys demonstrate that the unqualified use of the term 'cultured' to describe laboratory-created gemstones is misleading, there is no evidence to suggest that the use of the qualifying language set forth in the Guides fails to render the term non-deceptive."
The FCT agreed to "continue to evaluate advertising using the term 'cultured diamonds' on a case-by-case basis and recommend enforcement action when appropriate."
In a response, Cecilia L. Gardner, JVC president, was concerned for consumer deception will be diverted because marketers will be "required to include one of the four clear terms already obligatory under the Guides that disclose the true nature of the product," which are 'laboratory-created cultured diamond', 'laboratory-grown cultured diamond', '(manufacturer)-created cultured diamond' or '(manufacturer)-synthetic cultured diamond.'

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