With the passage of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA), Congress handed the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) new resources, authority, and regulatory weapons to better arm its arsenal.
The new law broadens the CPSC’s authority, creates new rulemaking and recall requirements, and increases civil penalties from $1.8 million to $15 million per violation. Additionally, the CPSIA made it easier to pursue criminal charges for violation of CPSC’s laws, and penalties are much more substantial.
More than ever before, importers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers face the challenge of keeping track of the constantly evolving regulatory landscape that has resulted, including myriad new rules, guidance documents, interpretations, enforcement actions, and other policy changes. At the same time, they must cope with the many active state and local governments who have waded into the product safety swamp with new requirements and activism.
K&L Gates’ Consumer Product Safety practice offers broad safety and regulatory counseling services for consumer product firms. We assist firms with developing their compliance systems—and also with responding to regulatory crises. Our practice ranges across the landscape of products to include products subject to the jurisdiction of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and other federal and state regulatory agencies.
Our team is composed of seasoned and dedicated lawyers from multiple practice areas across the globe who collectively offer a complete and comprehensive analysis of issues clients may face when understanding and dealing with consumer product safety issues and potential product liability exposures. Our Consumer Product Safety team comes from diverse practice areas including the Food, Drugs, Medical Devices and Cosmetics; Product Liability; International Trade; Public Policy and Law; Toxic Tort; and Intellectual Property practices. Members of our Consumer Product Safety practice have direct government agency experience including with the Office of Compliance and Field Operations at the CPSC, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. On behalf of our clients, we work directly with the CPSC, FDA, Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, NHTSA, Environmental Protection Agency, and the industry advertising watchdog, the National Advertising Division, as well as courts across the United States. Our lawyers understand the way these agencies operate and know how to work with them and the investigators, prosecutors, and courts to achieve the best results for our clients.
Our clientele includes importers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers in the United States and throughout the world. We also represent trade associations and assist their membership in dealing with the various regulatory authorities. We have experience with reporting and recall requirements and coordination of worldwide safety efforts with the assistance of our international offices. In addition, we assist firms in resolving government investigations and other crises.
The breadth and depth of our experience with product safety law and compliance stretches to the European Union. In the EU, product safety is governed by a general product safety law, by certain sector-specific legislation, and by the regulation of chemicals used in products. There are many parallels with U.S. product safety law. For clients that export to, import into, or manufacture in the EU, our European Regulatory practice based in London, which includes a lawyer with 15 years of experience at the European Court of Justice, can assist in navigating the complexities of the EU legislation.