Industry Hopes to Appeal FTC Rulings

RAPAPORT… The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) intends to persuade the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to change its decision regarding
the description of a diamond.

In its new jewelry guidelines, the FTC stated the term
“diamond” does not necessary apply only to natural stones that are “of the
earth.” Thus, lab-grown stones can also be referred to by the term “diamond.”

“We hope that the door is still open for us to go back and
approach the FTC in order to try and persuade the organization to rethink its
decision,” Ernie Blom, president of the WFDB, said last week.

The new guidelines don’t correspond with the Diamond
Terminology Guidelines issued by the WFDB, in conjunction with other leading
groups in the diamond and jewelry sectors, Blom noted. Those guidelines specify
that a “diamond” means “natural.”

“We have a united stand regarding nomenclature, which was
agreed with all the combined knowledge and experience of the leading industry
bodies, but the FTC appears to have moved in a different direction,” Blom added.

However, the new FTC guide does maintain an important
requirement, said Reuven Kaufman, president of the Diamond Dealers Club (DDC).
It requires all lab-grown diamonds and colored stones to be disclosed as such,
and sold using qualifying language.

“The key takeaway for the industry is that, just as it has
always been, the natural diamond is the only stone that can be sold, without
any further qualification, as a ‘diamond,’” he noted.

The FTC’s rules are biased toward the lab-grown diamond
sector, and did not take the views of the natural-diamond industry sufficiently
into account, Blom said.

The revision now has the potential to cause confusion in the
sector, he added, noting that although a lab-grown diamond must be marked as
not being a mined stone, the new descriptors provide “too much latitude.”