The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (“CPSIA”) was signed into law by President Bush on August 14, 2008. The CPSIA represents a major overhaul of the earlier Consumer Product Safety Act (“CPSA”) and was drafted in an attempt to modernize the CPSA and the regulating body, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”). (For additional general information on the CPSIA, please see earlier Product Liability updates).

Significantly, the CPSIA mandates that manufacturers and importers of products covered by the CPSIA issue General Certifications of Conformity (“GCC”) for their goods. The GCC is required to identify the CPSC product safety regulation, or statutory requirement to which the product is subject, if any, and, where there is such an applicable regulation and/or requirement, the certification of the product must be based on a test of each product or a reasonable testing program. Moreover, for certain categories of products, certification must be based on independent third-party testing pursuant to a detailed and sometimes convoluted timeframe set forth in the CPSIA.

Please see full update for more information.