The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC or the Commission) is a small federal agency with a big job: protecting consumers from unreasonable risks of injury from more than 15,000 types of products. With a budget request for fiscal year 2019 of approximately $123 million and 538 employees—tiny by federal government standards—CPSC uses safety data submitted by companies pursuant to the notification requirements in Section 15 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA) to help carry out the agency's mandate. Further, following implementation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA), which increased dramatically the maximum penalties for noncompliance, CPSC has been aggressively pursuing multi-million dollar penalties for alleged late reporting and other violations.
This Desk Reference first explains the Section 15 notification requirements, including the broad scope of CPSC's jurisdiction, and then discusses routes to a product safety recall, reporting and recall trends, and penalties and injunctive relief for late reporting.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.