I’ve said before that for a sustainable legal strategy and to avoid claims of greenwashing, a company’s claims must be true, not misleading, and substantiated by competent and reliable scientific evidence.  Add to this simple list: if you make a specific claim regarding the properties of your product, be sure to know whether that claim raises further regulatory requirements. 

Samsung manufactured keyboards that it claimed contained antimicrobial properties and could inhibit germs and bacteria.  If that claim was false, misleading or not backed up by evidence, Samsung could be in trouble with the Federal Trade Commission. FTC, however, is not who fined Samsung. 

The US Environmental Protection Agency regulates pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).  FIFRA requires that all pesticides be registered with the EPA so it can determine that the pesticide, when used in accordance with labeling directions, will not cause unreasonable adverse effects to human health or the environment.  

By claiming antimicrobial properties on the keyboard, the Samsung keyboard fell within the EPA’s broad definition of a pesticide: any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest, where a pest is living organisms that occur where they are not wanted or that cause damage to crops or humans or other animals, such as insects, mice and other animals, unwanted plants (weeds), fungi, or microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses. 

The failure to register the keyboard with the EPA under FIFRA cost Samsung a $205,000 fine. The fine was not based on the keyboards’ inability to fight off critters, just that it was not properly registered.  After having gone through the trouble on your own of verifying your green claims, providing extensive corroborating data and not making misleading statements, wouldn’t you hate to find out that your product is now regulated?  Have your claims reviewed by an experienced attorney.