On July 30, 2024, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a Decision and Order against Amazon, finding that Amazon is a "distributor" of third-party products, as defined by the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA),...more
When the CPSC finds that a product is defective and constitutes a substantial product hazard, it will ask a company to voluntarily undertake a corrective action, commonly called a recall. If the company refuses to take such...more
On September 11, 2023, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted to adopt sweeping safety requirements, pursuant to Reese’s Law, for button cell and coin batteries and products containing these batteries or designed...more
On February 9th, 2023, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) published a proposed rule, as required by Reese’s Law, for button cell and coin batteries and products sold with them. While the publication of the final...more
The Federal Trade Commission continues to focus on labor-market competition issues with a set of settlements based on its newly asserted FTC Act Section 5 “stand alone” authority, and a highly controversial proposed...more
The Administrative Procedure Act (the “APA”) requires federal agencies to take specific steps when creating new rules and regulations. As a federal agency, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (the “CPSC”) must follow these...more
In early January, after referral by the CPSC to the Department of Justice (and probably the subject of an Acting Chair Adler public comment), fire extinguisher manufacturer Kidde reached a settlement with the government to...more
For years consumer product safety advocate groups have bemoaned the seeming lack of aggressiveness from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”). As an example, they complain that the CPSC levied no civil penalties on...more
On September 25th, the CPSC Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) released its long-awaited report summarizing its investigation of the 2019 CPSC data breach. Most notably, the report finds that the data breach was larger and...more
An interesting and potentially very important case not only in CPSC world but for thousands of statutes and regulations is pending in a federal court of appeals. On May 18th, a civil rights group filed its opening brief...more
Section 6(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Act has for many years encouraged voluntary reporting and protected companies from disclosure of inaccurate or misleading information by requiring CPSC to take reasonable steps to...more
Late this afternoon it was confirmed that Commissioner Bob Adler was elected Vice-Chairman of the CPSC. Because there is no permanent CPSC Chairman at this time, Commissioner Adler will become the Acting Chairman of the...more
In a press release this afternoon, Acting Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle announced that she would be withdrawing her nomination to be the permanent Chairman of the CPSC, as well as her nomination for an additional 7 year term,...more
Late this afternoon, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) informed what could turn out to be a very large number of consumer product companies that it recently discovered what appears to be a mass inadvertent...more
In recent years, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has begun to grapple with the effects of the Internet of Things (IoT) on consumer product safety. In May 2018, the CPSC held its first public hearing...more
Now in its fifth week, the partial government shutdown has left many companies wondering what to do about recalls for consumer products. Generally, consumer product companies work in coordination with the U.S. Consumer...more
On Friday, October 5, 2018, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”) announced that Costco Wholesale, Corp. (Costco) entered into a settlement agreement with the CPSC to pay a $3.85 million civil penalty for its...more
This afternoon, Peter Feldman was confirmed by a vote of 80-19 to be a Commissioner for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission for a term to end in October 2019. The Senate also voted along party lines to invoke cloture...more
The consumer product safety community is rarely provided guidance by federal court decisions. On Tuesday, however, Judge R. Brooke Jackson of the Federal District Court for the District of Colorado issued an opinion in the...more
6/14/2018
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Administrative Procedure Act ,
Administrative Remedies ,
Child Safety ,
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Enforcement Authority ,
Expert Testimony ,
Product Recalls ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Warning Labels ,
Zen Magnets
Yesterday the U.S. Senate confirmed Dana Baiocco (pronounced “Bee Awe Co”) as a Commissioner for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission with a term that runs through October of 2024. The confirmation took over eight...more
With Congress back in session, on January 8th President Trump was swift to re-nominate Acting Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle to be the permanent Chairman of the CPSC, along with a nomination for a second term as a Commissioner. ...more
This morning at the CPSC’s public hearing Commissioner Joe Mohorovic announced that he would be resigning from his position as a Commissioner, effective Friday, October 20th. Mohorovic announced that he would be joining the...more
Over the past few weeks, there have been many key goings-on related to the CPSC and its Commissioners....more
Yesterday, President Trump announced his nomination of Dana Baiocco to be a Republican Commissioner on the Consumer Product Safety Commission. If confirmed, Ms. Baiocco would take the seat of Commissioner Robinson, whose term...more
Today, President Donald Trump officially announced his intent to nominate Acting Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle to be the permanent Chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Her new seven year term will begin on...more