Consumer Product Safety

This morning, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced that it has obtained a record-breaking $15.45 million civil penalty in a settlement agreement with Gree Electric Appliances of China, Hong Kong Gree Electric Appliances Sales Co. of Hong Kong, and Gree USA Sales of California (Gree) over dehumidifiers sold under 13 different brand names.

There have been many twists and turns over the past four years concerning the CPSC’s regulation of certain high powered, rare-earth magnet sets and its litigation against various entities selling these magnets.

Allegations are increasing against The Honest Company, Inc. for false and misleading marketing of its products as "all natural" and "plant-based" when they supposedly contain synthetic ingredients.The Honest Company sells personal care, cleaning, and baby products in multiple channels including at retail, online and through consumer subscriptions. 

In case you hadn’t heard about it or didn’t get involved in any of the events hosted by various campaign members, the week of March 6-12 was National Consumer Protection Week.

On March 11, Health Canada announced that it had assessed administrative monetary penalties under the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPSA) against company Orange TKO Industries (Orange TKO or the Company) of Calgary. 

We recently blogged about a new wave of class action litigation related to California’s Transparency in Supply Chains Act.  In December, Nestlé USA won the dismissal of a complaint against it alleging that the company was “obligated to inform consumers that some proportion of its cat food products may include seafood which was sourced from forced labor.” 

After hosting the first of three stakeholder meetings late last year, federal government agencies engaged in overhauling the 1986 Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology recently announced that meetings two and three will take place on March 9 and March 30 in Dallas, Texas and Davis, California, respectively.

The latest salvo in the legislative food fight over genetically engineered (GE) ingredients came from the Senate, where Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) has introduced a bill that would instruct the Secretary of Agriculture to create a voluntary food labeling standard for bioengineered foods.

Earlier today, the CPSC unanimously agreed to publish in the Federal Register a new enforcement policy proposed by Commissioner Joe Mohorovic regarding the certification of certain adult wearing apparel (click here for policy-related materials and statement prepared by Commissioner Mohorovic). 

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) contained a scene where bodies of plague victims were brought out to the curb for collection via a cart whether or not they properly belonged there. One living fellow insists on not being dead by exclaiming: “I’m not dead yet.”  Unfortunately for him, his protestations go unheeded and he is placed in the cart of the dead.

As we recently blogged about, in January the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Rule 68 ‘pick off’ strategy in its Campbell-Edwald decision. 

We blog frequently about new regulatory developments coming from CPSC or FDA and about enforcement actions brought by those federal agencies as well as state counterparts and private plaintiffs.

President Obama signed Public Law 112-28 (“PL 112-28”) into law on August 12, 2011. PL 112-28 amended numerous provisions of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (“CPSIA”). One such amendment made a notable change to the operation of the CPSC’s Saferproducts.gov database with respect to claims that a database report contains materially inaccurate information (“MII Claims”). 

Our colleagues Michael Arnold and Gauri Punjabi recently discussed the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection of the Federal Rule 68 "pick off" strategy on Mintz Levin’s Employment Matters Blog.

Reversing course from the end of 2015, FDA recently announced an import ban on genetically engineered (GE) salmon until such a time as comprehensive labeling guidelines are introduced.

Back in September we blogged about the Warning Letter that FDA issued to Hampton Creek Foods, Inc. for its vegan food dressing and sandwich spread, “Just Mayo” and a similar product, “Just Mayo Sriracha.” 

On Tuesday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee unanimously approved the President's nomination of Dr. Robert Califf as the next commissioner of food and drugs.

Last year, we wrote about a growing trend of local jurisdictions regulating children’s products, primarily toys and apparel. One such jurisdiction, Albany County, NY, enacted a far-reaching ordinance, “Local Law J of 2014,” that prohibited the sale of children’s products containing seven chemicals of “high concern” (see previous blog post here).

Has your business experienced difficulty identifying on the CPSC’s website which product safety regulations are potentially applicable to your products?

The first round goes to the industry: on December 9, 2015, the Central District of California dismissed the complaint in Barber v. Nestle USA, a key bellwether case in a new wave of class action litigation related to California’s Transparency in Supply Chains Act.