Industry Associations Urge CPSC to Withdraw Controversial Proposal on Binding Corrective Action Plans
The Consumer Product Safety Commission should drop plans to move forward with new regulations on voluntary recall plans and disclosure of company information, said nearly 50 industry associations in a letter dated Oct. 18 (here). Consideration of final rules setting the new requirements would ignore overwhelmingly negative comments on CPSC’s 2013 and 2014 proposals, which would make voluntary corrective action plans mandatory and amend the commission’s 6(b) information disclosure regulations. Instead, CPSC should withdraw the proposals and work with industry to issue new and different proposed rules for public comment, said the groups, which include the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the American Association of Exporters and Importers and the National Association of Manufacturers.
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CPSC announced at an Aug. 31 agenda-setting meeting that it “expects to begin consideration in November 2016 of final rules on Voluntary Remedial Actions and Guidelines for Voluntary Recall Notices and Disclosure Under Section 6(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Act,” the letter said. However, as currently written, both proposed rules “will harm the CPSC’s and industry’s efforts to work collaboratively to effectively protect consumers,” it said. Industry has said the proposal to amend recall procedures to make voluntary corrective action plans legally binding would create an adversarial process whereby companies would have to take more time and hire lawyers to negotiate them (see 13112028 and 14021817). Congress would eventually block funding for finalizing the controversial proposal (see 14071714), though CPSC subsequently voted narrowly to keep the controversial provisions in the proposal (see 1505120017).
Rather than move forward with final rules, CPSC should “withdraw these two proposed rules and work cooperatively with interested parties to develop strategies that will improve the effectiveness of recalls and accomplish” CPSC’s policy objectives, the letter said. If CPSC moves forward with the final rules, “which appears to be the case after the August 31 meeting,” CPSC could set new regulations “without engaging in an important stakeholder dialogue so critical to the development of useful and legally sound rules by any agency and could in fact impede consumer protection activities,” it said. CPSC should also “formalize stakeholder engagement” on these issues, including through a public workshop on improving the recall process, the industry associations said. “Without stakeholder engagement, the Commission’s advancement of these rules could chill the strong and cooperative relationship it has with industry -- a relationship that is a fundamental element of the CPSC’s and industry’s success in protecting consumers from potentially hazardous products,” they said.
After withdrawing the proposals and gathering industry input, CPSC should restart the regulatory process if it intends to issue any similar regulations by issuing new proposed rules, the letter said. “Stakeholders submitted detailed and thoughtful analyses of the proposals and the many complex policy and legal issues they raise. These responses addressed the core of the Commission’s proposals, and any movement on the underlying proposals will necessarily require a rethinking, and thus new proposals,” it said. CPSC should provide the opportunity for renewed public comment on any new proposals on voluntary recalls, corrective action plans and Section 6(b) information disclosure requirements, the letter said. “‘Compromise’ proposals would necessarily be ‘new,’ and thus require such additional public input.”