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After a process that began back in 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) unanimously approved a revised Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (COPPA Rule or Rule) on January 16, 2025. The Rule was based on comments responding to the FTC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) issued January 11, 2024. This is the first revision to the COPPA Rule since 2013.

The COPPA Rule implements the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and imposes certain requirements on businesses (referred to as “operators”) regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of children’s personal information. While the changes to the Rule are not as far-reaching as they might have been (some proposed provisions in the January 2024 NPRM, including changes related to edtech, did not make it into the final version of the Rule), the modifications to the Rule impose a number of important new requirements on operators that will require action. Read more here.

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Competition Bureau Canada (the Bureau) announced just before Christmas that it is seeking public comments on draft guidelines (the Guidelines) for assessing environmental claims for compliance with Canada’s Competition Act (the Act). The Act was amended in June 2024 by adding two specific provisions to existing general prohibitions for false and misleading representations and unsupported performance claims to address environmental claims. Under the recent amendments, marketing claims about the environmental benefits of a product must be based on “adequate and proper testing” conducted before the claim is made, and claims about the environmental benefits of a business or business activity must “be based on adequate and proper substantiation in accordance with an internationally recognized methodology.”

The proposed Guidelines are based on six high-level principles aimed at ensuring that environmental claims comply with all of the Act’s provisions, including the recent amendments. Read more here.

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California recently became the first state to adopt an extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme for textiles by adopting Senate Bill 707, the Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024 (the RTRA or Act). Specific requirements will become effective in 2026. EPR is a regulatory approach that shifts the burden of recycling and reuse of products away from local governments and consumers to manufacturers for the entire lifecycle of a product. The EPR approach aims to reduce landfill waste, promote recycling and reuse, and encourage innovation in product design and disposal. While this policy concept is not new—EPR programs for products such as electronics, mattresses, carpeting, and packaging are already active in the U.S. and EU—no such scheme for textiles currently exists in either jurisdiction. That is now changing. Read more here.

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On December 18, 2024, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) approved a final rule to implement electronic filing (eFiling) of certificates of compliance (CoC) for imported consumer products that are subject to a CPSC rule, ban, standard, or regulation (Final Rule). A 24-month effective date will apply to covered consumer products imported into a Foreign Trade Zone.

Currently, importers of regulated products are required to create and maintain CoCs attesting to compliance with mandatory requirements applicable to their products, but a CoC need not be filed at the time of importation. CPSC may request a CoC—and importers must promptly provide it, typically in a PDF or paper format—after staff flags a shipment for examination. The Final Rule will change this. After the effective date, CoC data will have to be electronically filed at the time of entry by transmitting message set data into the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Read more here.

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On December 5, 2024, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) published a notice of enforcement discretion under SB 253, the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, which requires U.S. companies that do business in California and that have total annual revenues in excess of $1 billion to report all of their Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions annually. CARB is mandated by the law to promulgate implementing regulations, and the initial Scope 1 and 2 emissions reports are due in 2026 on a date yet to be determined by CARB. 

The notice informs covered entities that CARB will exercise its enforcement discretion to allow reporting entities to submit Scope 1 and 2 emissions reports based on information the reporting entity “already possesses or is already collecting at the time this Notice was issued.” CARB notes that reporting companies may not have time to transition to new data collection and reporting practices for the first reporting cycle. Thus, the agency will not take enforcement action for incomplete reporting during the first reporting cycle, provided that the reporting entity demonstrates a good faith effort to comply with SB 253 and retains all data relevant to emissions reporting for the prior fiscal year.

CARB does, however, warn that the December 5 notice is intended only for the transition period, and the agency encourages businesses “to use this period to move toward full compliance as quickly as possible.” CARB plans to provide details on reporting for subsequent years through its rulemaking process.

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On October 16, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission announced its final “click-to-cancel” rule, expanding its prior rules on negative options to include all types of subscription sales.

A central element of the rule is a requirement that sellers make it as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it was to sign up, meaning offering the so-called “click-to-cancel” mechanism. The rule also:

  • prohibits sellers from misrepresenting any material facts while using negative option marketing;
  • requires clear and conspicuous disclosures of material terms before obtaining consumers’ billing information and charging them; and
  • requires sellers to obtain informed consent to the negative option features before charging consumers.

The final rule covers B2B as well as B2C transactions, but recognizes that negative option provisions can be negotiated between businesses. Most requirements of the rule will go into effect 180 days after it is published in the Federal Register.

The proposed rule, announced in March 2023, garnered thousands of comments. The Commission decided against including two provisions it initially proposed. First is a requirement that businesses send consumers annual reminders about the negative option feature. Second is a requirement that sellers obtain unambiguous consent to send consumers “saves,” defined in the proposed rule as “an attempt by a seller to present any additional offers, modifications to the existing agreement, reasons to retain the existing offer, or similar information when a consumer attempts to cancel a negative option feature.” The latter provision in particular appears to potentially pose First Amendment issues. The Commission is not entirely abandoning these provisions, however. It plans to issue a Supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (SNPR) and will keep the record open on these points.

The vote was 3-2, with Commissioner Slaughter issuing a concurring opinion and Republican Commissioners Ferguson and Holyoak dissenting. Commissioner Holyoak issued a detailed dissenting opinion outlining her views of the procedural and substantive irregularities and deficiencies of the rule. It remains to be seen whether the rule will be challenged.

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On September 10, 2024, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC or the Commission) published a notice extending the comment period for its expansion of the eFiling Beta Pilot Test to October 10, 2024. This extension is referred to by CPSC staff in training materials as the “eFiling voluntary stage” to differentiate it from the initial Beta Pilot Test, which ended in June 2024. The initial Beta Pilot Test was conducted in consultation with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which will also be involved in the “eFiling voluntary stage.” CPSC continues work on a revised rule on Certificates of Compliance (CoC or certificates), 16 C.F.R. Part 1110 (Rule 1110), which would establish requirements for eFiling of CoC data. (We previously wrote about the proposed revisions to CoCs here.) CPSC’s current proposal would impose onerous new requirements for importers to pair each product with its own CoC, including exclusion codes for products subject to certain exemptions. CPSC also created a list of disclaim codes for products outside CPSC’s jurisdiction, suggesting that importers should include this information in shipping documents to avoid hold-ups at the ports. With the extension of the comment period for expansion of the eFiling Beta Pilot Test, finalization of at least the eFiling requirements will almost certainly be delayed beyond this month (in training sessions, CPSC staff noted that “rollout” of final eFiling requirements is not expected until 2025). As the CoC proposed rule and eFiling initiative are intertwined, importers should keep a close watch on the timing of both. Read more here.

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On August 13, 2024, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC or Commission) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) in the Federal Register proposing new rules for children’s toys containing button and coin cell batteries. This comes fewer than seven months after CPSC adopted the most recent revisions to the mandatory safety standard for children’s toys, ASTM F963, Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Toy Safety (Toy Safety Standard), which became effective in April 2024. The NPR was published less than a year after CPSC finalized regulations under 16 C.F.R. Part 1263 to implement Reese’s Law, Public Law 117-171. Reese’s Law was passed in August 2022 to protect children 6 years old and younger against hazards associated with the ingestion of button or coin cell batteries in other consumer products.

CPSC, however, now asserts that the revised Toy Safety Standard does not go far enough to address the specific hazards presented by button and coin cell batteries. The NPR argues for alignment of the Toy Safety Standard with the performance and labeling requirements contained in ANSI/UL 4200A.

Read more here.

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On August 14, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) announced its Final Trade Regulation Rule on the Use of Consumer Reviews and Testimonials (Final Rule) to rein in what it believes is the widespread practice of using fake reviews and testimonials to boost sales of products or services. The long-awaited Final Rule was developed under the provisions of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. Thus, it is the culmination of a two-year process that started in November 2022 with the publication of an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR), followed by a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in July 2023, and a February 2024 informal public hearing. The Final Rule reflects some changes from the proposed rule set out in the NPRM, including clarifications and limitations that were based on feedback received during the public comment period. For example, a previously proposed section addressing reuse of consumer reviews written for one product, so that the reviews appear written for a “substantially different product,” was omitted from the Final Rule following multiple comments, including a comment that raised a disputed issue of material fact. The Commission decided not to finalize this provision at this time and reserved it for potential future rulemaking.

To read more, including key provisions of the Final Rule, click here.

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As widely predicted, on July 30, 2024, the Senate passed the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) in a bipartisan vote of 91-3. Echoing criticism from both civil liberties groups and industry, Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) voted no, citing concerns that KOSA could be used to censor information and would impose sweeping responsibilities on platforms to prevent and mitigate unspecified harms. The bills now head to the House where their fate is uncertain.