Commercial Information Circulars

24-hour hotline : 23 922 922

e-mail address : enquiry@tid.gov.hk

Ref : EIC 111/2/20, EIC 111/2/21

13 December 2010

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 578/2010

US : CPSC's Final Rule on Publicly Available Consumer Product Safety Information Database

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued in the Federal Register (FR) notice of 9 December 2010 a final rule that would establish and maintain a publicly available consumer product safety information database pertaining to the US Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA) as amended by the US Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). While the final rule is effective from 10 January 2011, the database is scheduled to "go-live" in March 2011. The FR notice is available at: 
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-30491.pdf.

DETAILS

2. The CPSA, as amended by the CPSIA, requires the CPSC to establish and maintain a database on the safety of consumer products, and other products or substances regulated by the CPSC and the database must be publicly available, searchable, and accessible through the CPSC's website. The final rule interprets various statutory requirements pertaining to the information to be included in the database and also would establish provisions regarding submitting reports of harm; providing notice of reports of harm to manufacturers; publishing reports of harm and manufacturer comments in the database; and dealing with confidential and materially inaccurate information.

3. Traders have been informed via Commercial Information Circular No. 248/2010 that the CPSC issued in the FR of 24 May 2010 a proposed rule on the establishment of a publicly available consumer product safety database. The final rule is essential the same as the proposed rule with the major clarifications and changes listed below:

1. A report of harm would have to include all of the following information in order to be published in the database:

1. description of the consumer product (such as brand name, model, serial number, etc),

2. identification of the manufacturer,

3. description of the harm,

4. incident date,

5. category of the submitted (e.g. consumer, government agency, etc),

6. submitter's contact information (this would not be published),

7. verification that the information is true and accurate to the best of the submitter's knowledge,

8. consent to publish the report in the database.

If the CPSC is unable to identify the manufacturer of the product involved in a report of harm, it will not publish the report in the public database but will maintain that report for internal use.

2. A manufacturer (including importer) or private labeler (collectively, "manufacturer") could submit comments to any reports of harm for publishing in the database. In the proposed rule, the CPSC proposed that manufacturers' comments on any reports of harm received more than one year after the CPSC sent them the report would not be published. The CPSC clarifies in the final rule that it will publish the manufacturers' comments in the database whenever it received them.

3. Any person or entity may request the CPSC to remove from the database or rectify the reports of harm and/or manufacturers' comments, either before or after publication in the database, if they consider such reports or comments contain materially inaccurate information. If the CPSC determines the information is materially inaccurate, it will either decline to publish the information, rectify the materially inaccurate information or remove the materially inaccurate information from the database.

4. Other details of the final rule, including comments received from the public on the database and responses of the CPSC, are set out in the above-mentioned FR notice.

ENQUIRIES

5. For enquiries concerning this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5682.

Yours faithfully,

 

(Miss Carmen CHAN)
for Director-General of Trade and Industry



Note :

While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the above information, the Department cannot guarantee this to be so and will not be held liable for any reliance placed on the same.