(PRESS RELEASE) CARLSBAD, CA — On March 29, 2019, GIA announced changes to its laboratory-grown diamond grading report to align the report with recent revisions to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Jewelry Guides.
Effective July 1, 2019, GIA will discontinue the GIA Synthetic Diamond Grading Report, introduced in January 2007, and introduce the GIA Laboratory-Grown Diamond Report.
The GIA Laboratory-Grown Diamond Report will include the standard GIA color, clarity and cut grading scales for reference purposes.
The GIA Laboratory-Grown Diamond Report will continue to use Colorless, Near Colorless, Faint, Very Light and Light to report the color grades for laboratory-grown diamonds, rather than the letters used to report the color grades for natural diamonds.
The standard GIA color grading scales will be included on the report for reference, for example: Colorless for D, E and F; Near Colorless for G, H, I and J; and Faint for K, L and M.
The GIA Laboratory-Grown Diamond Report will continue to use Flawless, Internally Flawless, Very Very Slightly Included, Very Slightly Included, Slightly Included and Included to report the clarity grades for laboratory-grown diamonds, rather than VVS1 and VVS2; VS1 and VS2; SI1 and SI2; and I1, I2 and I3 used to report the clarity grades for natural diamonds.
The standard GIA clarity grading scales will be included on the report for reference, for example Slightly Included for SI1 and SI2.
The GIA Laboratory-Grown Diamond Report will use ‘laboratory-grown’ in the identification line of the report; ‘synthetic’ will not be used in the report.
The GIA Laboratory-Grown Diamond Report includes the following statement: This is a man-made diamond produced by CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) or HPHT (High Pressure High Temperature) growth processes and may include post-growth treatments to change the color.
All detected clarity treatments will be disclosed.
The QR code on the GIA Laboratory-Grown Diamond Report will link to GIA’s online Report Check Service which can be used to confirm that the information on a report matches what is in the GIA report database. The Report Check record for each GIA Laboratory-Grown Diamond Report will include educational material about the CVD and HPHT methods for growing laboratory-grown diamonds to help educate consumers and fulfill our mission of ensuring the public trust in gems and jewelry.
GIA specifies ‘natural diamond’ on its grading reports for natural diamonds – the GIA Diamond Grading Report and the GIA Diamond Dossier.
Any GIA Synthetic Diamond Grading Report issued since Jan. 1, 2018, may be returned and exchanged for the GIA Laboratory-Grown Diamond Report at no cost.
Visit GIA.edu for an illustration of the GIA Laboratory-Grown Diamond Report.