The Fair Trade Commission has ordered a Hitachi Ltd. subsidiary to stop using misleading advertisements that describe its latest line of refrigerators as eco-friendly.
In newspaper and other ads since November, Hitachi Appliances Inc. claimed that nine models in the Eiyo Ikiiki and Big & Slim 60 families use recycled plastic materials and that carbon dioxide emissions were substantially reduced in processing the materials into insulators, the FTC said.
But six of the nine models didn't have any of the recycled material, and the remaining three only made partial use of it in the insulation, the FTC said Monday.
Since the ads misled consumers into believing the new refrigerators were more "green" than they actually are, it is breaking the law on product representation, the fair-trade watchdog said.
Hitachi Appliances apologized and said it has returned an award honoring the new refrigerators from the Energy Conservation Center, an organ affiliated with the Ministry of Economic, Trade and Industry.