Casket retailing and the Funeral Rule

The FTC's Funeral Rule (16 CFR Part 453) is the central federal instrument in this industry. Three provisions carry its casket effect: the casket price list must be handed over on beginning any casket discussion (§453.2); a provider may not condition one purchase on another, refuse a casket bought elsewhere, or charge a handling fee for one (§453.4(b)(1)); and a 2010 staff opinion bars obstruction at delivery — no required consumer presence, no storage fees, no treating third-party retailers differently. The scope limit matters as much: the Rule binds funeral providers, not third-party sellers or cemeteries without an on-site funeral home — so manufacturers are regulated through what their customers may do, and monument dealers sit outside it entirely.

Behind the Rule sits an unresolved constitutional question, and deathcare is its vehicle: may a state reserve casket sales to licensed funeral directors? Three circuits disagree. Struck down in the Sixth (Craigmiles v. Giles, 2002 — protectionism alone is not a legitimate basis) and Fifth (St. Joseph Abbey v. Castille, 2013); upheld in the Tenth (Powers v. Harris, 2004 — over a concurrence objecting to exactly that holding). Two usable consequences: Michigan sits in the Sixth Circuit, so Craigmiles binds — a Michigan bill reserving casket sales to licensed funeral directors is presumptively unconstitutional, one of the few hard answers on this map. And the Oklahoma statute upheld in Powers expressly exempted urns and monuments — so the urn half of manufacturing, and all of the monument trade, sit outside the licensure question.

• 16 CFR Part 453 — the Funeral Rule
• Craigmiles v. Giles, 312 F.3d 220 (6th Cir. 2002)
• Powers v. Harris, 379 F.3d 1208 (10th Cir. 2004)
• St. Joseph Abbey v. Castille (5th Cir.)