Arvada-based Rocky Mountain Sunscreen and three other skin care companies have agreed to stop using “all-natural” claims on some of their products as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.
The FTC on Tuesday said that it reached proposed settlements with four firms that allegedly falsely claimed their skin care products were “all natural” or “100 percent natural” when they contained synthetic ingredients. Such false claims are in violation of provisions of the Federal Trade Commission Act, officials said.
The consent orders bar the companies from using that language in the future unless they have evidence to support their ingredient, environmental and health claims.
The FTC’s complaint against targeted two of its more than two dozen products: the Face Stick SPF 60 All Natural Sunscreen and Face Stick SPF 60 Kids All Natural Sunscreen.
“It was a misunderstanding on our end; it was our fault,” said Sean Zimmerman, the company’s general manager. “The active ingredients were the natural ingredients. We thought that was needed to meet that statement of all-natural, but the FTC said the inactive was as well. We did not understand that aspect of it.”
After being notified by the FTC, Rocky Mountain Sunscreen immediately pulled the Face Stick products and changed the label to reflect the products as “mineral-based.”
“We acted immediately and did everything within their guidelines,” Zimmerman said.
The other FTC proposed consent orders issued Tuesday included Santa Rosa, Calif.-based Trans-India Products Inc., which does business as ; Memphis, Tenn.-based ABS Consumer Products LLC, which does business as ; and . The FTC on Tuesday also announced it filed a complaint against Sausalito, Calif.-based California Naturel Inc. for allegedly making deceptive “all-natural” claims.
As of Tuesday, those three firms’ websites continued to list products as their products as “natural.”
The orders are subject to a 30-day public comment period, and comments can be submitted at the following links: , , and .
Alicia Wallace: 303-954-1939, awallace@denverpost.com or @aliciawallace
