There is a federal crackdown on fake “Made in USA” labels. Here is where One Bison stands.
Fake “Made in USA” labels have been an issue for years. Now that the federal government is putting real enforcement behind the rules, I want to be completely transparent about how we handle things at One Bison.
The short version: The FTC is prioritizing enforcement against false “Made in USA” claims, and it is specifically targeting online marketplaces that don’t verify where products come from. Every business on One Bison is already reviewed by a real person on our team, and we are re-checking every American-made listing against our own standard right now.
What changed at the federal level
In March 2026, the White House signed Executive Order 14392, directing the FTC to prioritize enforcement against false origin claims. It does not change the core law. The rule it enforces, the FTC’s Made in USA Labeling Rule (16 CFR Part 323), has been on the books since 2021. What changed is the priority, and the order specifically calls out online marketplaces that fail to verify where their products actually come from. The FTC has already been acting on it, running a “Made in USA” enforcement sweep earlier this year.
The federal standard is strict. To legally claim a product is American-made, the FTC requires it to be all or virtually all sourced right here.
How we verify American-made
We have always manually reviewed every single business before it goes live on our platform, not just now. For American-made specifically, here is what that means:
- Our American-made label works at the company level. Every single one of a company’s products has to be made in the USA, not just some of them. New Balance, for example, makes some of its shoes in the USA but not all, so they would not qualify.
- We confirm the company’s own website and product labeling back up the claim.
- If the claim is unclear, or a product is only assembled in the USA using overseas components, it does not get our American-made badge.
- We are building internal tools to help our team flag potential issues early, though a real person on our team will always make the final call.
Where we want to do better
Checking a company’s own claim is close to what the government already does. Where we want to do better is at the product level, especially as we move toward letting people buy directly on One Bison. We are working through how to get there, which could include companies signing attestations on where each part of a product is made. We are open to ideas, and feedback from our community has already made the directory more accurate.
What we are doing right now
We are taking this a step further with a deeper audit of every listing currently carrying the American-made tag. Sourcing changes over time, so we are re-checking each one against our American-made standard to make sure it still holds up.
When you see the American-made label on One Bison, we want it to mean exactly what it says. That is the entire point of what we are building.
