You might be right, but the important thing is that they were technically misleading consumers by using the term which is reserved for products which are actually antimicrobial. Green washing is a huge issue within all industries not just Fashion and Apparel.

In a report entitled Sins of Greenwashing done by UL partner TerraChoice just released a few months back indicated that 95% of greener products are committing one or more of the seven sins of greenwashing. This includes: *Hidden Trade-off *No Proof *Vagueness *Irrelevance *Lesser of 2 evils *Fibbing *False labels These go into greater detail in the report and do not sound as cutesie, i.e. The sin of Fibbing would be equivalent to a corporation blatantly lying to your face to steal your money.

It goes on to say that "There is evidence that it is improving. The proportion of sin-free products appears to have doubled in each of the last two years from less than 1% in 2007 to approx 2% in 2009, and to almost 4.5% in 2010."

This is in part of the FTC cracking down on their labeling requirements of products. I agree with insomniac84's statement that they weren't intentionally scamming anyone.

The EPA's main goal was to prohibit CROCS from using that one word within their marketing campaign. The fine was small because they do probably agree that the misleading term was accidental. Thus they monetarily slapped them on the wrist, maybe to actually indicate the lack severity with this specific situation, and to stop the future use of the term. This is a speeding ticket to them.

Green products and eco-driven companies need to be the way of the future. We are destroying our planet, which could eventually kill our kids, our grandkids, or all the dinosaurs.

I believe it was Yvon Chouinard who said something to the effect of "The sustainability of the planet is necessary to the sustainability of business" and I completely agree with this, and I hope you do too.

The TerraChoice survey can be found here

TL;DR: EPA most likely agreed that this was a minor offense, hence the small fine which reflects the severity of the issue. Their main goal was just to eliminate the use of "Antimicrobial" as to not confuse future consumers. TeraChoice has a 2010 report stating 95% of green products are "sinning" in one or more ways - but companies are changing this and true green products being produced have risen from 1% in 2007 up to 4.5% in 2010. Eco-driven products and companies are not a fad, it is a movement, it is the way of the future. Read the book "Let my people go surfing" by Yvon Chouinard.

edit: Formatting