Clothing Retailers Settle Federal Disclosure Charges

Six major clothing manufacturers and retailers--including discount giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Simi Valley-based Bugle Boy Industries Inc.--have settled government charges that they failed to disclose the origin of textile products in their Internet catalogs.

The Federal Trade Commission, which announced the agreements Tuesday, alleged that the companies did not comply with the Textile Fiber Products Identification Act. The other four companies are Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp., Delia’s Inc., Woolrich Inc. and Gottschalks Inc.

In a separate agreement, Los Angeles-based Design Zone Inc. settled charges that it removed “Made in China” labels from certain T-shirts and replaced them with “Made in USA” labels, the FTC said. And Abercrombie & Fitch Co. settled charges that its print catalogs violated the same law.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart said any infringement of textile and wool disclosure laws was inadvertent.