This might be a good idea if it was feasible to measure in an objective way, but that is absolutely not the case. And I’m not really sure it would be a good idea even then.
It seems perfectly simple to measure, and they just need to contain at least that much, so companies would overshoot by a bit to make sure.
If a company claims it contains a litre, and a customer sues, all the company has to do is bring one to court. And have a representative get a litre out in a way that seems reasonable to the judge.
“In a way that seems reasonable to the judge” is hiding an enormous amount of complexity that cannot possibly be adjudicated fairly or with a reasonable expectation that your methods at the factory to test it will be approved in court.
If you were trying to turn this into law, I think the normal way would be to encode the principle into statute, and then delegate the rulemaking. For the law, you’d define it like:
The term “Net Extractable Quantity” means the weight or volume of a covered product that a consumer can reasonably be expected to extract from its original packaging during ordinary and customary use, without resorting to destructive, dilutive, or extraordinary measures.
Then you’d direct the FTC to make regulations defining standardized testing procedures. Things like, it should sit for 24hr, in the retail orientation, at room temperature / fridge temperature as the packaging specifies for storage after opening; pumps are to be operated with force X until the marginal depression puts out less than Y% of a serving; etc. We do this kind of rulemaking for many products, so I think it could be done here without too much cost.
This might be a good idea if it was feasible to measure in an objective way, but that is absolutely not the case. And I’m not really sure it would be a good idea even then.
It seems perfectly simple to measure, and they just need to contain at least that much, so companies would overshoot by a bit to make sure.
If a company claims it contains a litre, and a customer sues, all the company has to do is bring one to court. And have a representative get a litre out in a way that seems reasonable to the judge.
“In a way that seems reasonable to the judge” is hiding an enormous amount of complexity that cannot possibly be adjudicated fairly or with a reasonable expectation that your methods at the factory to test it will be approved in court.
That could be argued about every single thing in law, yet law continues to work.
If you were trying to turn this into law, I think the normal way would be to encode the principle into statute, and then delegate the rulemaking. For the law, you’d define it like:
Then you’d direct the FTC to make regulations defining standardized testing procedures. Things like, it should sit for 24hr, in the retail orientation, at room temperature / fridge temperature as the packaging specifies for storage after opening; pumps are to be operated with force X until the marginal depression puts out less than Y% of a serving; etc. We do this kind of rulemaking for many products, so I think it could be done here without too much cost.