After more than five months of eager anticipation, the CPSC community finally knows who will be leading the agency, assuming confirmations go as smoothly as expected. President Biden announced on July 2, 2021 that he will nominate Alexander Hoehn-Saric for Chair and a seat on the Commission. Hoehn-Saric is currently Chief Counsel to the House
CPSC
CPSC Review Leaves Certification Rules for Children’s Products Unchanged

After completing its review of testing and labeling regulations for children’s products, staff of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recommended leaving the current product testing and component part testing regulations as is. The CPSC carried out this review of the “Testing and Labeling Regulations Pertaining to Product Certification of Children’s Products, Including Reliance on…
CPSC Staff to Hold Webinar on AI in Consumer Products

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and related technologies have the potential to dramatically change the nature of consumer products, and a variety of agencies are considering the implications of these technologies. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) staff has announced plans to hold a public webinar on Tuesday, March 2, 2021, from 9am to…
CPSC Continues Enforcing PPPA Requirements During COVID-19 Crisis

With millions of children home due to school closures, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently issued checklists with guidance on keeping homes safe during this period. Protecting children from accidental ingestion of potentially harmful products found in the home featured prominently in these documents. CPSC’s current focus on poison prevention continues a recent trend…
EPA’s Nancy Beck Nominated to Head CPSC

Some months after Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official Nancy Beck was rumored to be the President’s choice to serve as Chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the news is now official. The White House announced Beck’s nomination on March 2, 2020.
Beck’s nomination, if approved by the Senate, would bring the CPSC back…

E-Vapor Industry Coalition Formally Opposes CPSC Novel Interpretation of CNPPA that Immediately Requires Flow-Restricted Packaging for E-Liquids


As previously reported on Keller and Heckman’s “The Continuum of Risk” blog, earlier this year, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced that it was now reading the Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act (CNPPA) to require nicotine e-liquid bottles to meet the “restricted flow requirement” in 16 C.F.R. § 1700.15(d), in addition to having…

FTC’s 2018 Data Privacy and Security Update Highlights Enforcement


The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently released its annual report highlighting its work on privacy and data security during 2018. The FTC initiated five enforcement actions arising out of data breaches and nine data privacy enforcement actions in 2018, including cases against online payment system Venmo and mobile phone maker BLU for misrepresenting their privacy…
Sheila Millar and Boaz Green Author Law360 Article “CPSC Is Shifting Toward Voluntary Standards”

Sheila Millar discusses CPSC’s activities in 2018 and gives her predictions on possible agency actions in the coming year in the Law360 article “CPSC Is Shifting Toward Voluntary Standards” (Feb. 6). Law360 featured the article in its newsletter sections for Consumer Protection, Cybersecurity, and Product Safety. To read the full article, click here. For…
White House Re-nominates Ann Marie Buerkle for Chair and Commissioner

On January 16, 2019, the White House re-nominated Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Acting-Chair Ann Marie Buerkle to be Chairman, and for another seven-year term as Commissioner. Acting Chair Buerkle was first nominated in July of 2017, and re-nominated in January of last year, but the Senate did not act on these nominations.
The business …
CPSC Settles with Britax over Allegedly Defective Strollers

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) settled an administrative lawsuit against Britax Child Safety, Inc. over claims that some models of their B.O.B. jogging strollers present a substantial product hazard due to an alleged design defect. As we previously reported, the suit was filed in February 2018 after reports that the front wheel…