On May 3, 2023, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a provisional order with a $15.8 million civil penalty against Wisconsin-based Generac Power Systems, Inc. (Generac) over charges that for more than two years, Generac failed to report serious hazards caused by some of its portable generators. According to the CPSC, from October
On April 19, 2023, the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC or Commission) voted to adopt ASTM F2057-23 as a mandatory safety standard to prevent injuries and deaths of children from the tip-over of freestanding clothing storage units (CSUs). The newly adopted standard supersedes a prior CPSC safety standard for CSUs that was due to
Late last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had sent a “Notice of Penalty Offenses” on claim substantiation to around 670 companies. While this notice tactic is not a new tool, it has been reinvigorated following the 2021 Supreme Court decision in AMG Cap. Mgmt., which led to the FTC losing its
On February 8, 2023, a majority of commissioners of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC or Commission) voted to issue a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNPR) on the CPSC’s procedures for disclosing information to the public under Section 6(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA). The notice follows the publication of a briefing
At the request of multiple stakeholders, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced today that it is giving additional time for the public to weigh in on proposed changes to its Green Guides for the Use of Environmental Claims (Green Guides). The FTC has extended the public comment period for 60 days, now ending on April
On October 19, 2022, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC or Commission) approved a Final Rule imposing mandatory safety requirements for clothing storage units (CSUs) that will, according to the CPSC, “significantly change the way clothing storage units are tested and labeled” to address furniture tip-over hazards. The rulemaking has been in the works
The Internet of Things (IoT) segment has grown, and with it have come many examples of vulnerable products, from babycams whose feeds could be viewed by strangers online to hackable implantable cardiac devices. There are also infamous examples of botnets (i.e., clusters of hacked devices) featuring millions of IoT devices with one common trait: weak
In a notice published in the Federal Register on August 8, 2022, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) staff announced that the CPSC will hold a workshop on October 13, 2022, to discuss CPSC’s eFiling Program and the Commission’s plans for a joint Beta Pilot Test with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) (previously
Two recent Senate bills show that Congress is working to improve the nation’s patchwork of recycling laws. On July 28, 2022, the Senate voted unanimously to pass The Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act of 2022 (RIAA) and The Recycling and Composting Accountability Act (RCAA). The first of these directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC or Commission) has issued several new proposals or policy statements affecting advertisers recently, including resurrection of its Penalty Offense Authority and an Enforcement Policy Statement Regarding Negative Option Marketing (which we previously reported on here). The FTC is now seeking public feedback on a proposal to enhance and strengthen
