Fair Packaging and Labeling Act

Fair Packaging and Labeling Act

Long title	To regulate interstate and foreign commerce by preventing the use of unfair or deceptive methods of packaging or labeling of certain consumer commodities distributed in such commerce, and for other purposes.
Acronyms (colloquial)	FPLA
Enacted by	the 89th United States Congress
Effective	November 3, 1966
Citations
Public Law	89-755
Statutes at Large	80 Stat. 1296
Codification
Acts amended	Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act
Titles amended	15 U.S.C.: Commerce and Trade 21 U.S.C.: Food and Drugs
U.S.C. sections created	15 U.S.C. ch. 39 § 1451 et seq.
U.S.C. sections amended	21 U.S.C. ch. 9 §§ 301, 321, 331-337
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 985 by Philip Hart (D–MI) on June 9, 1966 Committee consideration by Committee on Energy and Commerce Passed the Senate on June 9, 1966 (72-9) Passed the House on October 3, 1966 (300-8) with amendment House agreed to House amendment on October 17, 1966 (242-6) Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on November 3, 1966

The Fair Packaging and Labeling Act is a U.S. law that applies to labels on many consumer products. It requires the label to state:

• The identity of the product;
• The name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer, or distributor; and
• The net quantity of contents.

The contents statement must include both metric and U.S. customary units.

Passed under Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966, the law first took effect on July 1, 1967. The metric labeling requirement was added in 1992 and took effect on February 14, 1994. The law is codified as 15 U.S.C. §§ 1451–1461.

There has been an effort by industry threatened by a European Union directive that would force metric-only labeling starting January 1, 2010,^[1] to amend the FPLA to allow manufacturers to use metric-only labeling.^[2] An amendment to delay indefinitely metric-only labeling was adopted by the European Commission September 10, 2007, approved by the European Parliament November 29, 2007, and by the European Economic and Social Committee December 12, 2007.^[3] The E.U. will review this policy again in 2018 and may then maintain the status quo or set a deadline for mandatory metric only.^[4]

See also

• Food labeling regulations
• Packaging and labeling

References

External links

• FPLA in full
• Federal Trade Commission page
• Proposal to Amend the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA) for Permissible Metric-Only Labeling accessed December 17, 2008
• Standards Setting in the European Union NIST SP891 (1997 edition)