In France They Say "Synthetic"
February 15, 24
Question: When is a lab grown diamond not a lab grown diamond?
Answer: When you're in France.
By law, you have to call it a "diamant de synthese" or "synthetique" - "synthetic diamond" or "synthetic". Those are the only acceptable terms.
"Diamant de laboratoire" and "diamant de culture" - "laboratory diamond" and "cultivated diamond" are not allowed.
This is not new. These rules have, technically, been in place since January 2002, when the French government's Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Prevention of Fraud (DGCCRF) ruled on the terminology that could be used to describe cultured pearls and lab grown colored gemstones.
While they were at it, they decided on acceptable terms for describing lab grown diamonds, even though they barely existed in the marketplace at the time.
What's new is that the DGCCRF has just reviewed those rules, following a challenge by a French lab grown company, and decided to stick with them.
They weren't a big deal two decades ago. They are a big deal today. We're fast approaching the point when lab grown diamonds will, by volume at least, account for the majority of all diamond sales globally, and France is taking an unusually hard line on the way they can be described.
CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation which represents over 40 countries, is OK with "laboratory-grown diamond" and "laboratory-created diamond" as well as "synthetic diamond". All three terms are synonymous, it says.
Likewise in the US, where the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says "laboratory-grown diamonds" or "laboratory-created diamonds" are acceptable. It has reservations about "synthetic" because it says some consumers may associate it with products that simulate diamonds, but concludes that it is still a legitimate consumer term.
In the UK the National Association of Jewellers approves "synthetic", "laboratory-grown" or "laboratory-created", but says the abbreviations "lab-grown" and "lab-created" should not be used, or the terms "cultured" or "cultivated".
"Synthetic" is not a term the lab grown sector loves. Dorothee Contour, CEO at Paris-based lab grown (sorry, synthetic) diamond company JEM, says it's misleading and suggests the diamond is a fake.
"A diamond is a diamond, whether it forms in a laboratory or underground," she says. "Also, this term 'synthesis' is scientifically incorrect: no synthesis process takes place. Man does not 'make' a diamond, he only recreates the conditions necessary to generate a natural phenomenon: the crystallization of carbon."
That's an interesting, and controversial assertion - that man doesn't make diamonds, he only provides the right conditions
But are we splitting hairs here? Does the average consumer distinguish between a diamond that has been "synthesised" and one that has been "laboratory grown"?
Synthesis is (Britannica Dictionary definition) to make (something) by combining different things, or to make (something) from simpler substances through a chemical process. It has no entry for lab grown or its variant expressions, which is telling.
The lab grown lobby, and indeed the FTC, will argue that the term "synthetic" downgrades the perceived value of a diamond by suggesting it's not quite the real thing. It has a negative vibe. "Lab grown" by contrast, combines a bit of science (lab) and a bit of nature (grown) and has a more positive feel.
The natural diamond sector naturally favors the clearest possible distinction between its offering and whatever term is used to describe diamonds that don't come out of the ground.
But the bottom line is this: Will the "synthetic" label make a difference to France's diamond-buying public? Or does it just boil down to how many carats they get for their euro?