EGL USA Says Delisting is ‘Disservice to Industry’

(IDEX Online News) – The decision to remove all EGL-certified diamonds from the RapNet Diamond Trading Network has provoked a strong reaction from Mitch Jakubovic, director of EGL USA, who has said that the independent lab is being punished for bearing the EGL name.

Jakubovic said that as the sole owner of the trademark in the United States, EGL USA is the only EGL lab with the legal right to issue gemological reports in the country.

“To protect this right, EGL USA brought trademark infringement and false advertising claims against the EGL labs outside of North America, for both their inflated grading practices and improper use of the EGL name in the US,” he said in a press release. “These legal actions reinforce an existing customs border ban on their reports, established over a decade ago.”

He argued that the delisting of EGL USA penalizes the lab because of its name, saying that while it is disservice to EGL USA; it is an “even greater disservice to our customers and the industry-at-large.”

Jakubovic said that the lab is very grateful for the support of its customers and that it will “return the favor,” with updated trading platform plans that will be announced shortly.

EGL USA is not the only lab to have complained about the delisting, which will take place from October 1. EGL South Africa managing director Alan Lowe earlier released a statement in which he said that he was very disappointed that the lab had been grouped with some of the other EGL laboratories around the world when it comes to ethics or grading policy.

The current controversy over EGL certification began earlier this year when a TV station in Nashville broadcast a program claiming that local company Genesis Diamonds was selling jewelry with diamonds whose grading reports, provided by EGL International, were too generous.

Three lawsuits have been filed against the company in the US concerning the certification accompanying its diamonds.