US Jewish legal group accuses Guinness records of consumer fraud for hiding ban on Israel |
A US Jewish legal advocacy group accused Guinness World Records Limited (GWR) of deceiving consumers by blocking submissions from Israel, in a letter to the US Federal Trade Commission on Thursday.
The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law accused Guinness of deceiving consumers by claiming that its world records are “for everyone, everywhere,” without disclosing that it had blocked applications from Israel, making the claim misleading.
Guinness, which is based in the UK, said earlier this month that it had blocked submissions from Israel and the Palestinian territories since November 2023, weeks after Hamas’s October 2023 invasion of Israel, due to the “sensitive” situation amid the war in Gaza.
“For more than two years, GWR has excluded entries from Israel without informing American consumers that it has ceased publishing ‘world’ records and instead publishes records that only represent a portion of the world. This materially misrepresents the core claim of the product that Guinness ‘World’ Records advertises and sells in the US,” the letter to the Federal Trade Commission read.
“GWR may publish whatever ‘records’ it wishes. But under US law, GWR may not mislead American consumers by hiding that its ‘world’ records actually consist of the greatest achievements only in the non-Israeli part of the world,” the letter said, citing Section 5(a) of the FTC Act, which bans “deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce.”
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