I always look at unit prices: how much do I get for my dollar? But that assumes I can use all of it. The manufacturer gets "12oz" whether I'll be able to get the full 12oz or only 6oz. L'Oreal was selling lotions where:

these Liquid Cosmetic Product containers only dispense between as little as 43 percent to 81 percent of the container's advertised contents. — Critcher et al. v. L'Oreal

Even though these containers would often dispense less than half of the advertised volume, L'Oreal won the case: the law says the amount listed on the container means the amount in the container, not the amount you'll be able to get out of the container. But it doesn't have to be that way. What should our laws say?

We should update our labeling laws to require manufacturers to use the amount a consumer could reasonably extract. If you have a wide mouth transparent container with smooth insides, a rubber scraper can get it all. If you have a narrow mouth squeeze bottle, then only count what squeezes out. Maybe manufacturers would shift to more efficient packaging, or maybe consumers would accept higher unit cost [...]

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First published:
March 25th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/JCDSYcQnNLZsvvdM8/label-by-usable-volume

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Label By Usable Volume” by jefftk