Washington, D.C. – Today, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) exposing Guinness World Records Limited (GWR) for secretly blocking all submissions from Israel for the past two years, while continuing to market its products as genuine “world” records. The Brandeis Center urges the FTC to stop GWR’s deceptive practices, prevent GWR from continuing to deceive American consumers, and require GWR to compensate consumers who were misled and defrauded by GWR’s deceptive practice.
According to the letter, GWR is deceiving American consumers by claiming that “record-breaking is for everyone, everywhere.” But for years, the company refused to accept any submissions from Israel – information not disclosed to consumers – thereby rendering its alleged “world” records incomplete and misleading. These fraudulent practices were brought to light on December 2, 2025, when GWR rejected an application from Israeli charity Matnat Chaim, which attempted to gather 2,000 voluntary life-savers in a single photo to encourage kidney donation. GWR informed Matnat Chaim that it had not accepted submissions from Israel in over two years. The company’s ban was enacted secretly in November 2023, one month after Hamas’ October 7 atrocities, despite GWR’s continued public claims of global inclusivity.
The Brandeis Center letter further revealed how GWR continues to promote and accept records from nations with deplorable human rights records, including North Korea, Syria, and Iran. As explained in the letter, “GWR published the 2014 world record for longest talk show broadcast by a Damascus studio aligned with Bashar al-Assad. That record came not long after the Syrian dictator’s sarin gas attack on the nearby Ghouta suburb of Damascus. More recently, GWR featured an Iranian jump rope record achieved in February 2023 while the Islamic Republic was actively rounding up tens of thousands of participants in the Women, Life, Freedom protests.”
“Guinness has a right to exclude Israeli records and publish anything they want, but they don’t have a right to deceive their readership and customer base by claiming that it is publishing ‘world records’,” said Hon. Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman of the Brandeis Center and the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education who ran the Office for Civil Rights. “We have seen again and again that Israelis are capable of besting the competition and achieving international success. Any so-called ‘world record’ excluding such talented challengers must at a minimum carry an asterisk to disclose that it is not truly a record for the entire world. Without any asterisks on their so-called ‘world records,’ GWR has falsely presented its findings. What’s worse, they hid their bigoted actions from consumers knowing it was unrepresentative of the titles they claimed. We are hopeful that the FTC will hold GWR accountable and ensure accurate and inclusive records moving forward. To the extent that GWR has been deceptively selling mislabeled products to the public, it should provide their money back.”
The Brandeis Center works to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promote justice for individuals in all sectors, including the workplace, housing, healthcare, public accommodations, government services, unions, academia, and corporations. While the Brandeis Center is most known for its work combating K-12 and campus anti-Semitism – such as the precedent-setting agreement with Harvard University – the organization has also filed lawsuits and helped Jews challenge discriminatory practices of Ben & Jerry’s, Microsoft, the New York Legal Aid Group’s union, and the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys.
