FTC's Revised Guides Stoke Up Flames Between 'Natural' And 'Synthetic' Diamond Sectors

There's an uneasy feeling in parts of the diamond industry this weekend following the publication of the revised US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Guides for the Jewelry, Precious Metals, and Pewter Industries. The overall summing up of the changes regarding diamonds appears to give a boost to the lab-grown diamond sector.

The guides widen the definition of what can be called a diamond to bring in those grown in a lab or factory since diamonds can also be grown in a lab, the FTC said, while emphasising that this needs to be clearly stated.

Previously, the FTC Guides approved laboratory-created, laboratory-grown, [manufacturer-name]-created, and synthetic for non-mined diamonds. Diamond industry organizations have used the word "synthetic" to describe stones made in factories.

Now the FTC is no longer recommending synthetic, and also says that manufacturers of such stones can use other terms if they “clearly and conspicuously convey that the product is not a mined stone.”

Lab-grown diamond makers had requested that "synthetic" be disallowed , claiming that the term was used in a bid to lead consumers to believe that such stones with stimulants.

The FTC declined to accept terms including [manufacturer-name]-grown, foundry, created, and grown.

The FTC, in its Guides, appeared to be walking a fine line between the factory-made and mined diamond sectors, providing extensive footnotes to illustrate that the views of industry players had been taken into account as well as studies on consumer perceptions relating to terminology.

The changes will likely be met with disappointment by diamond industry bodies which have stuck to the word "synthetics" for several years. As they have stressed, lab-grown diamonds might sound clean and environmentally friendly, but they are actually diamonds grown to order in factory setting and need large amounts of energy to sustain them. They have none of the romance of mined diamonds or the financial benefits to miners and their families, says organizations such as the World Federation of Diamond Bourses.

As for the lab-grown diamond manufacturers, it's safe to assume that they would have liked the FTC to go further regarding key terms such as cultured and synthetic.

Do the FTC guides have any practical application? Can the FTC enforce its rules? It's a government body and is not going to send staff out to enforce its guides which are, simply, that: guidelines. Nonetheless, in the ongoing low-flame conflict between the "natural" and "synthetic" diamond sectors, each side will want to prove that the guides support their stance.