The FTC dropped the 10k gold threshold. What will this mean for consumers and the industry?
By Shawna Kulpa
When the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released the finalized updates to its Guides for the Jewelry, Precious Metals, and Pewter Industries in late July, the jewelry industry was taken aback by at least one of the changes: The longtime thresholds for identifying alloys as “gold” or “silver” were gone.
Previously, the Guides had long recommended that “gold” and “silver” not be used to describe any alloy containing less than 10k (41.67 percent by weight) of gold or 900 ppt of silver. For many in the industry, maintaining those minimum thresholds was critical to maintaining the value of traditional jewelry—particularly when it came to gold. Now, with the update, that threshold has been eliminated, and “gold” could be used to describe jewelry with any amount of the precious metal. Observers predicted that the change could one day lead to 5k and 2k gold alloys—or worse—hitting the market.