>President Trump nominates Acting Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle as Permanent Chairman of the CPSC
July 24, 2017, Mintz-Levin
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 October 27, 2018 when her first term is set to expire. If confirmed, she will become the permanent Chairman immediately and her new term will end in October 2025.Class
>Class Dismissed: Shift in CPSC leadership means more changes to come
July 27, 2017, Morrison and Forester
The most significant developments the authors expect in the coming months are a reversal in the trend of enforcement and steep penalties. Consumer products providers are increasingly willing to voluntarily recall products rather than wait for the CPSC to initiate an investigation. It would not be surprising if this pattern of self-regulation resulted in more cooperation between the CPSC and consumer products providers and, ultimately, an overall reduction in civil penalties.
>Ann Marie Buerkle is Trump’s pick to lead product safety agency: What to know
July 25, 2017, The National Law Review
The authors note that nominee for CPSC Chairmanship Ann Marie Buerkle has consistently voted against penalties for late reporting of dangerous product defects. “One might think that I oppose civil penalties as a matter of course but actually my opposition has been for a variety of reasons,” she said. She is also no fan of mandatory product safety standards. On Jan. 11, the CPSC voted 3-2 to approve a new federal safety standard for infant sling carriers. Two weeks later, just days after Trump’s inauguration, Buerkle released a statement explaining that she opposed the standard “because it is likely to ruin dozens if not hundreds of law-abiding small businesses without preventing any deaths or significant injuries.”
Bouncing injury numbers not inflated
July 27, 2017, The Journal Gazette
The Consumer Product Safety Commission says 82,203 people were injured on inflatables between 2008 and 2013, more than 90 percent of those on moon bounces. (That number represents ER visits and doesn’t include scrapes and bruises dealt with at home.) And the rate of injuries has been growing over time. Two-thirds of the injuries are to legs and arms. Fifteen percent involve heads and faces.
Proposition 65 Amendments Require Re-evaluation of Products and Warnings
July 27, 2017 Lexology (Shumaker, Loop, and Kendrick, LLP)
Proposition 65 was substantially amended in August 2016. Among other things, the amendments repealed and revised all of Article 6 which mandates the “Clear and Reasonable Warnings” requirements. Although the amendments do not take effect until August 30, 2018, given the lead time required for companies to change product packaging and labeling, many are re-visiting their compliance with Proposition 65 requirements well in advance of the effective date.
Group warns public on health risks of fidget spinners
July 27, 2017, Davao Today
A health and environmental watch group in the Philippines warned the public on Thursday about the potential harm of using the popular fidget spinners that have not passed both quality and safety procedures. EcoWaste Coalition issued the warning following the reported choking and fire incidents in the U.S. The group claimed the popular hand spinners were banned in Latvia and Luxembourg for “non-compliance” to the European Union’s toy and safety procedures.
Product recalls vs. withdrawal from sale: the current UK position
July 26, 2017, The National Law Review (Squire, Patton, Boggs)
Following the recent Grenfell Tower catastrophe, sparked by a refrigerator that had caught fire, attention has turned to a Government working group on product recalls and safety (established in October 2016), that was tasked with identifying the causes of fire in white goods and the actions needed to reduce them. This followed a review of a number of published product recalls in recent years, which highlighted that various white good products (which includes dishwashers, washing machines, tumble dryers, fridges and freezers) had been recalled due to fire risks.
WTO: Goods negotiations restart, members divided
July 22, 2017, scoop.co.nz (World Trade Organization)
World Trade Organization members took up a proposal which proponents said would facilitate the participation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in global trade by establishing rules to bring about greater transparency and access to information pertaining to government regulations on food and product safety. Negotiations in the group had stalled as members could not agree on the scope and level of ambition of talks to open markets for trade in industrial goods.
ACCC investigating Takata airbag recall
July 24, 2017, productsafety.gov.au
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is urgently seeking information from the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development (DIRD) and car manufacturers regarding Takata airbags at the center of the largest vehicle recall in history. Since 2009, more than 2.3 million vehicles in Australia have become subject to the recall of airbags covering 60 makes of cars sold in Australia.Some cars have already had their airbag replaced with one treated with a water-absorbing chemical designed to address the problem, but these may also degrade over time.
Irish consumers second most confident in EU about online shopping
July 27, 2017, The Irish Times
Irish consumers are among the most confident when it comes to online shopping, a new European Commission study shows. The latest “Consumer Conditions Scoreboard” ranks consumers in Ireland in second place among EU member states for trust in online purchases. Swedish shoppers topped the ranking with Bulgaria at the bottom of the list. The growth in online shopping here is illustrated by the fact that nearly 60 per cent of people in Ireland bought online in 2016, up from 33.1 per cent in 2007.
