A childhood belief about around the house

I used to see those tags on pillows and mattresses that said "Under penalty of law this tag is only to be removed by the consumer" and I thought it meant you would go to jail if you took off the tag yourself instead of taking it to a place where I imagined a guy with a pair of scissors at a 'Consumer' office cutting them off. My dad nearly fell over laughing when I explained it to him this way after freaking out when I saw him cut the tag off a new pillow.