Product Safety

CFA Applauds Biden-Harris Administration’s Actions to Protect American Consumers in Trade

 |  Blog Post

Last week, the Biden-Harris Administration announced new actions to protect consumers and address the significant abuse of the de minimis exemption. CFA has been calling attention to the product safety risks associated with the rapid increase of e-commerce, including that purchases valued under $800 can be imported into the U.S. and sent directly to the consumer with very little information for authorities to interdict dangerous or violative products. The Administration’s actions are a step in the right direction for consumer safety.

In a letter early last week, 126 House Democrats called on President Bident to use executive authority to scrap the de minimis loophole. Other countries are also grappling with similar de minimis challenges. The European Commission has proposed eliminating the current threshold under which items can be bought duty free.

We applaud the Administration’s announcement, but there is more work to ensure consumer safety, especially in the context of e-commerce and online platforms. First, the Administration’s announcement underscores the need for a legislative solution to the de minimis issue. Second, the safety issues associated with e-commerce highlight the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) critical work and its need for adequate funding. Specifically, there are notable examples of the CPSC and Custom and Border Protection’s efforts to seize products that violate federal safety standards, including 1,500 noncompliant children’s toys in New York and over 2,200 noncompliant baby/children products in Los Angeles. Yet budgetary constraints will impact CPSC’s work in the future. Funding that expanded port surveillance and inspections will be exhausted next year. Third, more must be done to ensure online platform accountability. Currently, foreign manufacturers or third party-sellers often disappear after CPSC contact regarding a hazardous product. Not only is the dynamic unfair for reputable sellers, but consumers have almost no means for recourse.

CFA will continue to push for safe consumer products. Next month, Courtney Griffin, CFA’s Director of Consumer Product Safety, will participate in the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization’s International Symposium, held in conjunction with the European Commission’s International Product Safety Week. Courtney will lead a panel representing consumer groups and industry to discuss product safety and online platforms. This past summer, Courtney participated in a forum with U.S and E.U. consumer groups about unsafe and illegal products through direct imports as part of the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue.

CFA also will continue to call on lawmakers to empower the CPSC’s vital safety work and ensure consumer safety in the following ways:

  • Online platforms must be accountable for their sellers. Consumers expect that the products they purchase online are just as safe as the products purchased at a physical store. Congress must act to ensure the safety of products sold online, especially products from third party sellers on online marketplaces.
  • Provide adequate CPSC funding. CPSC cannot continue its lifesaving work without adequate resources. The vast majority of CPSC’s budget is spent on personnel. CPSC is already a small agency with a small workforce. Cutting the CPSC’s budget further will mean less people and less work, thereby negatively impacting the safety of consumers.
  • Increase the statutory caps for CPSC’s civil penalties. Currently, the statutory caps on CPSC civil penalties – $100,000 per violation and $17,500,000 for multiple violations – are too low to reflect the gravity of violations or deter future bad behavior, especially for large corporations. The CAP Act will allow the CPSC latitude when it considers factors related to civil penalty assessments and ensure that civil penalty amounts reflect the severity of violations and deters future violations.
  • Repeal Section 6(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Act. Section 6(b), 15 U.S.C. § 2055(b), a provision of the CPSA prohibits the CPSC from disclosing information about a consumer product that identifies a manufacturer or private labeler unless the CPSC has taken “reasonable steps” to assure that the information is accurate, the disclosure is fair and reasonably related to effectuating the purposes of the CPSC.  As such, the CPSC must provide the manufacturer or private labeler with an opportunity to comment on the accuracy of the information, and the CPSC may not disclose such information for at least 15 days after sending it to the company for comment. The reality, however, is that the process between the CPSC and manufacturers or private labelers often takes many years before the information can be disclosed to the public, if ever at all. The Sunshine in Product Safety Act would repeal this provision that places corporate profit over consumer safety.