The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act Gave the Consumer Product Safety Commission More Tools to Hold Violators of Product Safety Rules Accountable: Civil Penalty Limits were Increased The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)1 was signed into law on August 14, 2008. The CPSIA includes the most significant improvements of the Consumer Product Safety Commission since the agency was established in the 1970’s. Civil Penalties: • Civil penalties serve an important deterrent effect to non-compliance with the laws enforced by the CPSC. • Such penalties should discourage manufacturers from taking risks with products that might injure or kill consumers or result in costly property damage and encourage manufacturers to report potential product safety hazards as soon as they learn about them. • Civil penalties will fail to further the purposes of the Act and fail to protect consumers if they are insufficient to induce compliance with the law. Before the CPSIA was passed: • CPSC did not have the resources or authority it needed to adequately protect consumers from unsafe products. • Statutory provisions limited the amount the CPSC could assess against a violator. • Civil penalty limits were capped at $8,000 per each violation and at $1.825 million for a related series of violations. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 Empowered the CPSC to Hold Violators of Product Safety Laws Accountable: • CPSC has the authority to levy more significant civil penalties against violators of its safety regulations, which helps deter wrongdoing, but it is imperative that the agency use that authority. • Section 217 of the CPSIA increased civil penalties to $100,000 per violation and to $15 million, indexed for inflation, for a related series of violations. 1 Public Law 110–314—AUG. 14, 2008