In The Matter of
PAN-AMERICAN MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INC.
COMPLAINT (SYNOPSIS), FINDINGS, AND ORDER IN REGARD TO THE ALLEGED VIOLATION OF SEC 5. OF AN ACT OF CONGRESS APPROVED SEPT. 26, 1914
Docket 1472. Complaint, July 23, 1927—Decision, July 5, 1929
Where a corporation engaged in the manufacture and sale of extracts, ice cream powder, syrups and flavors for soft drinks, including an artificially colored and flavored product first made by itself and its predecessor in the form of a syrup and later as a concentrate, for use in making an artificial grape drink, and with the taste, smell and color of a genuine grape drink, but with only an infinitesimal amount of the juice or fruit thereof,
(a) Sold said product in competition with makers of and dealers in genuine grape juice, under the name “Grapico” and featured said word in the labels thereof, with only a relatively small notice, if any, of the artificial flavoring and coloring of the product; and
(b) Set forth said trade name, together with the words, in smaller letters, “Sparkling,” and “Naturally Good,” in its advertisements in trade perlodicals, display cards, newspapers, boys’ caps for customers’ use, and in its price lists, order blanks, and stationery, with no such notice whatever, and upon the bottle caps or crowns supplied at its instance to customers outside the State, with only relatively small notice of such coloring and flavoring:
With the capacity and tendency to mislead and deceive purchasers of beverages made therefrom into believing the same to be composed wholly or in substantial amount of the juice or fruit of the grape and of placing in the hands of customers the means of committing a fraud upon the consuming public by enabling them to offer and sell said public a drink made substantially from imitation fruit flavors as and for one made from the true fruit:
Held, That such practices, under the circumstances set forth, constituted unfair methods of competition.
Mr. E. J. Hornibrook for the Commission.
Legier, McEnery & Waguespack, of New Orleans, La., and Mr. W. Parker Jones, of Washington, D. C., for respondent.
Synopsis of Complaint
Reciting its action in the public interest, pursuant to the provisions of the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Commission charged respondent, a Louisiana corporation engaged in the manufacture of a concentrate or syrup under the name “Grapico,” and in the sale thereof to bottling concerns through the various States, and with principal office and place of business in New Orleans, with naming product misleadingly, advertising falsely or misleadingly, and misbranding or mislabeling, in violation of the provisions of section 5
