What Every Manufacturer Needs to Know About the Consumer Product Safety Commission Database

Instructor: Bradley C. Nahrstadt

In 2008, Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). Section 212 of the CPSIA amended the Consumer Product Safety Act and required the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to establish and maintain a searchable product safety information database that was available to the public. On May 7, 2010, the CPSC gave notice of its proposed regulations establishing a publicly accessible and searchable database. On December 9, 2010, the CPSC published in the Federal Register its Final Rule establishing the Publicly Available Consumer Product Safety Information Database, which went live on March 11, 2011.

Some have suggested that the Database is long overdue and will serve to fully inform the public of problems associated with consumer products. Others have voiced concern that such a “crowd-sourced” Web site will be bloated with bogus, inaccurate and misleading reports. Still others have argued that the Database will be used by consumer advocacy groups and plaintiffs’ attorneys to manufacture evidence to be used in class action lawsuits. All of these claims may or may not be true, but one thing is certain: product manufacturers and labelers must be intimately familiar with the Database and take certain steps to ensure they are prepared to respond to reports of harm that are submitted to the CPSC for inclusion in the Database. This one-hour program discusses the mechanics of submitting and responding to reports of harm and offers companies some insight into the issues they should consider when responding to reports posted to the Database.

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