Followed this thread for a bit and want to jump in. I spent many, many years in the import/export biz and can clarify a point or two.
Does anyone know if the shipping cartons state "Norway" or are they labeled as "Made in China?" US Customs regulations are very clear on the mislabeling of imported goods and violators are subject to stiff penalties. If the carton is correctly labeled regarding country of origin, the product itself is not usually considered to be in violation of Customs laws. That's how you find bulk goods (e.g. socks) not individually labeled at the point of purchase with country of origin
However, if the importer has a master (or outer) shipping carton with the correct country of origin but labels the inner carton and/or product as originating someplace else, that is a violation of domestic FTC (and potentially FCC) regulations regarding false representation and/or advertising. Simply labeling the product itself "Norway" makes no direct claim of originating country so long as the exterior packaging complies with prevailing law. Intentionally deceptive? Yes. Legally deceptive? You would have to bring suit to find out.
Either way, I'm hugely disappointed to hear of this and two very good friends of mine will be, too. They consciously chose Hegel products over similarly priced, known-to-be China-o-fi goods to support a company that was supposedly providing a living wage to their laborers. Scandinavian companies are not normally associated with this kind of exploitative, dirt-bag obfuscation and many people implicitly trust their integrity. Clearly that is a serious mistake to make with Hegel. We aren't talking about discount K-D furniture from Ikea, after all.
The observation from -61 is cogent but incomplete. I knew workers threw themselves out of the windows of the Foxconn building where my Apple computers were made a year before I bought them. I bought them anyway, because they were simply better than anything else out there. Only time will tell if they succeeded influencing their contract manufacturers, but the Foxconn incidents were proximate causes of Apple "in-shoring" some of their production last year.
That doesn't make me feel any better about my choice of computers, but life is all about compromise. Something our politicians would do well to remember.
Does anyone know if the shipping cartons state "Norway" or are they labeled as "Made in China?" US Customs regulations are very clear on the mislabeling of imported goods and violators are subject to stiff penalties. If the carton is correctly labeled regarding country of origin, the product itself is not usually considered to be in violation of Customs laws. That's how you find bulk goods (e.g. socks) not individually labeled at the point of purchase with country of origin
However, if the importer has a master (or outer) shipping carton with the correct country of origin but labels the inner carton and/or product as originating someplace else, that is a violation of domestic FTC (and potentially FCC) regulations regarding false representation and/or advertising. Simply labeling the product itself "Norway" makes no direct claim of originating country so long as the exterior packaging complies with prevailing law. Intentionally deceptive? Yes. Legally deceptive? You would have to bring suit to find out.
Either way, I'm hugely disappointed to hear of this and two very good friends of mine will be, too. They consciously chose Hegel products over similarly priced, known-to-be China-o-fi goods to support a company that was supposedly providing a living wage to their laborers. Scandinavian companies are not normally associated with this kind of exploitative, dirt-bag obfuscation and many people implicitly trust their integrity. Clearly that is a serious mistake to make with Hegel. We aren't talking about discount K-D furniture from Ikea, after all.
The observation from -61 is cogent but incomplete. I knew workers threw themselves out of the windows of the Foxconn building where my Apple computers were made a year before I bought them. I bought them anyway, because they were simply better than anything else out there. Only time will tell if they succeeded influencing their contract manufacturers, but the Foxconn incidents were proximate causes of Apple "in-shoring" some of their production last year.
That doesn't make me feel any better about my choice of computers, but life is all about compromise. Something our politicians would do well to remember.