Business ProfileforDiscover CBD of Minnesota

On August 18, 2022, BBB contacted this business, requesting documentation or substantiation of the advertising claims made on their website. Specifically, BBB ask for information to support the claims of the products being 'THC free' when they may contain as much as .03%; the products claim to be 'organic' but no documentation was listed; the website did not include current certificates of analysis and the site collects personal information, but does not have a privacy policy.  Despite several contacts, as of September 23, 2022, the business did not respond to BBB. 

The BBB Code of Advertising states: 1. Basic Principles of the Code
1.1 The primary responsibility for truthful and non-deceptive advertising rests with the advertiser. Advertisers should be prepared to substantiate any objective claims or offers made before publication or broadcast. Upon request, they should present such substantiation promptly to the advertising medium or BBB.
1.2 Advertisements which are untrue, misleading, deceptive, fraudulent, falsely disparaging of competitors, or insincere offers to sell, shall not be used.
1.3 An advertisement as a whole may be misleading by implication, although every sentence separately considered may be literally true.
1.4 Misrepresentation may result not only from direct statements, but by omitting or obscuring a material fact.

28. Objective Superlative Claims
Superlative statements in advertisements about the tangible qualities and performance values of a product or service are objective claims for which the advertiser must possess substantiation as they can be based upon accepted standards or tests. As statements of fact, such claims, like “#1 in new car sales in the city,” can be proved or disproved.

34. Claimed Results
Claims relating to performance, energy savings, safety, efficacy or results for a product or service should be based on recent and competent testing or other objective data. 

37. “Made in USA” Claims
37.1 “Made in USA” and similar terms used to describe the origin of a product must be truthful and substantiated.
37.2 An advertiser must not express or imply that a product or product line is exclusively “Made in USA” unless all or virtually all of the product is made in the U.S. All significant parts and processing that go into the product must be of U.S. origin. That is, the product should contain no — or negligible — foreign content.
37.3 Advertisers can refer to products that are manufactured with foreign components as “Assembled in USA,” if the product's principal assembly and last substantial transformation was completed in the U.S.
37.4 Qualified “Made in USA” claims, for example, “60% U.S. content,” “Made in U.S. of U.S. and imported parts,” are appropriate for products that are manufactured or have been substantially assembled domestically. However, advertisers must avoid making these claims if a significant amount of assembly or material of the product was not completed in the U.S. Qualified “Made in USA” claims, like unqualified claims, must be truthful and substantiated.