Company: GROVW
Filing Date: 2025-11-13
Form Type: 10-Q
Source: 0001841761-25-000048
Chunk: 307

Company: Grove Collaborative Holdings, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-11-13
Form: 10-Q
Item: Part I, Item 8
Chunk 307
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 sell are labeled and advertised with claims as to their origin, ingredients or health, wellness, environmental or other benefits, including, by way of example, the use of the term “natural”, “organic”, “clean”, or “sustainable”, or similar synonyms or implied statements relating to such benefits. Grove’s brand as a whole is marketed using similar environmental language. The Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) Guides For The Use Of Environmental Marketing Claims, or the “Green Guides,” provide guidance on how to use environmental marketing claims, provide specific guidance for certain terms (e.g. “recyclable”), and recommend against using unqualified statements about environmental benefits such as “eco-friendly”. The Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) each have issued statements regarding the appropriate use of the word “natural,” but there is no single, U.S. government regulated definition of the term “natural” for use in the consumer and personal care industry. This is also true for many other claims common in the clean conscious product industry.

Consumer class actions, actions from industry groups such as the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau, and public enforcement actions have been brought against numerous companies that market “natural,” “sustainable,” or other ecologically conscious products or ingredients, asserting false, misleading and deceptive advertising and labeling claims. These suits often identify ingredients or components of a product for which certain marketing claims may not be fully accurate and claim that their presence in the product renders the statements false and deceptive. For example, some actions concerning “natural” claims have focused on the presence of genetically modified and/or synthetic ingredients or components in products, including synthetic forms of otherwise natural ingredients.

Many of our products are subject to regulatory enforcement:

•The FDA regulates product labels and other product claims for the consumer products subject to its jurisdiction and has the authority to challenge product labels and claims that it believes are non-compliant or false or misleading, through the use of a variety of enforcement tools (e.g., Warning Letters, untitled letters, and seizure actions). In limited circumstances, the FDA has taken regulatory action against products labeled “natural” but that nonetheless contain synthetic ingredients or components.

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•The FTC has the authority to challenge claims made in product advertising and requires that such claims are adequately substantiated prior to use. The FTC similarly has enforcement tools that it uses to challenge advertising claims that it deems non-compliant with the law.

•The USDA enforces federal standards for organic production and use of the term “