Welcome to Government Watch, a weekly Restaurant Business column focused on politics, regulation, legislation, and other governmental issues of relevance to the restaurant industry. This week's edition looks at informal new guidance from the FTC about what decor is appropriate for a restaurant selling seafood.
The restaurant industry’s largest seafood chains found an unusual warning in their inboxes Tuesday from a high-level federal regulator: Take a critical look at your décor if you don’t want to be investigated.
If it’s too evocative of dining at some seaside shanty on fish that was pulled from local waters just minutes beforehand, that could be a problem, wrote Alvaro Bedoya, one of the five commissioners who steer the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC. You’re suggesting the seafood traveled from boat to plate, with minimal time en route.
If it wasn’t caught locally, or from the wild, you’re pulling a con and could be sanctioned accordingly, Bedoya warned.
“Customers deserve to know when they are being served the genuine item—and when they are being offered something else,” he wrote in the communication, which was posted on the social media platform X in addition to being sent to the nation’s 10 largest seafood chains.
He stresses that he’s just offering advice, not leveling accusations or signaling that a crackdown is afoot. But, he warned the chains, “I will not hesitate to request a law enforcement investigation if I am presented with credible evidence of a law violation.”
Strangely, the guidance he provided as an attachment was neither a piece of legislation nor an actual set of regulations. Instead, the illumination he offered was a recent FTC blog installment.
The Sept. 18 posting asked readers to imagine visiting a restaurant adorned with design elements like fishing nets hanging from the ceiling, pictures on the walls of fishing boats and their crews, and tablecloths sporting the red, white and blue of the American flag.
Menus and crew uniforms sport terms like “Eat local!” or “We catch ‘em, you eat ‘em!” The word “fresh” appears in a variety of places.
“Given this scene, would you be surprised to find out that the seasonal fresh catch was actually farmed seafood, frozen overseas and shipped in?” wrote Julia Ensore, an attorney in the enforcement division of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
She argued that the visual cues are in effect advertisements, as are social media or website posts, and have to be as truthful. “The same rules apply,” Ensore wrote.
Call us cynical, but we never once thought that a Bob Evans was actually a farmhouse, or that any operation promising farm-fresh eggs really had a chicken coop in the back. Not once did we assume that First Watch paid seven figures for its Million Dollar Bacon. Nor have we ever thought Olive Garden’s dishware must be infinitely deep because the chain says it offers endless bowls of salad and pasta.
The FTC is pursuing a worthy goal in trying to ensure the seafood described on the menu or in ads is really what’s on your plate. Anyone who’s spent 15 minutes in the business knows that trash fish is routinely passed off as pricier species at every link in the supply chain. It’s one of the industry’s dirty secrets.
But displaying a few lobster pots or shrimp nets to give some place a nautical feel is hardly running a scam, even if the joint only serves frozen shrimp.
The bigger concern is the apparent creep in what the FTC sees as its police beat. Should it really be deciding whether décor and ambience are in line with what a restaurant actually sells?
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