Spun Bamboo Class Action: Clothing Isn’t Made With ‘100% Bamboo Fiber’

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A Florida man says bamboo product retailer Ecodesignz falsely advertises Spun Bamboo garments as being made with bamboo fibers when they’re actually made of rayon.

Plaintiff William Cordoba says that while the fabric used to make Spun Bamboo clothing may be bamboo-based, the process by which those bamboo fibers are turned into weavable yarn results in rayon, a “synthetic textile.” Cordoba says no reasonable consumer would equate rayon to the natural bamboo fibers that Ecodesignz says its garments are made of.

Defendant Ecodesignz LLC sells clothing and linens through its retail website, BambooClothes.com. The same company also sells furniture made of bamboo through its other website, Ecodesignz.com.

Cordoba says Ecodesignz advertises its Spun Bamboo clothing as being made of “bamboo” and “100% bamboo fiber.” Alternatively, Ecodesignz represents some products as being made of “viscose” – another term for rayon, the plaintiff says.

According to the Spun Bamboo class action lawsuit, there are two ways to turn bamboo fibers into a sewable textile. The first is to weave unadulterated bamboo fibers into fabric. This fabric is known as “bamboo fiber,” “bamboo linen” or “mechanically processed bamboo,” Cordoba says.

The second way is to turn the bamboo fiber into rayon through a chemical process that fundamentally alters the nature of the plant fibers, the lawsuit states. The rayon process takes cellulose from a plant source – bamboo or otherwise – and dissolves it in a chemical solution. This solution is forced through spinnerets and solidified using an acid bath.

Rayon produced through this process has no remaining trace of the original plant fibers, Cordoba says.

The Federal Trade Commission has taken action against advertisers who improperly labeled synthetic rayon fabric as “bamboo,” Cordoba claims. He says that in August 2009, the Commission issued a business alert informing advertisers that “’bamboo’ is not a proper generic fiber name for manufactured rayon textile fibers.”

The FTC also sent out a letter in February 2010 to 78 companies – including Ecodesignz – warning them that by marketing rayon products as “bamboo,” they could be breaking the law.

As a self-described socially responsible shopper, Cordoba says he relied on Ecodesignz’s representations that its Spun Bamboo garments are made of bamboo fiber. He says he purchased a pair of Spun Bamboo boxer briefs from the company’s website in February 2017.

It wasn’t until he got the boxer briefs and read the label inside the garment that he found out they are made of “68% Viscose from Bamboo.” Cordoba says these briefs that could retail for $18 are essentially equivalent to other synthetic products that sell for around $8.99.

Cordoba seeks to represent a plaintiff Class consisting of “[a]ll persons who purchased an Ecodesignz Product at www.bambooclothes.com, not for resale, within the United States.” He expects Class Members that meet this definition could number in the thousands.

He is asking the court to award damages, restitution and disgorgement of revenue related to the alleged misconduct, and an order requiring Ecodesignz to stop the conduct at issue and to begin a corrective advertising campaign.

Cordoba is represented by attorneys Kolin C. Tang and James C. Shah of Shepherd, Finkelman, Miller & Shah LLP.

The Spun Bamboo False Advertising Class Action Lawsuit is William Cordoba v. Ecodesignz LLC, Case No. 2:17-cv-04266, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.