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Notes from the Recent CPSC Safety Academy 2013

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During the recent CPSC Safety Academy held in Seattle, WA this month, there was a presentation given by Carol Cave, the SafetyAcademy2013Assistant Executive Director (AED) of the Office of Import Surveillance and John Blachere, an International Trade Specialist in the Office of Import Surveillance for the CPSC on how the CPSC reviews shipments at ports.

With the expansion of the tariff codes, the CPSC has the ability to target shipments with either high profile product groups, which may have experienced recalls or manufacturers who may have had problem products in the past.  Based on this system, there were over 2 million shipments that were eligible for examination and out of these only 1,400 (0.070%) were detained with an average detention time of 13.4 days.

The products detained included; Toys (55%), Fireworks (14%), Clothing (9%), Holiday Light Sets (3%), Other Electrical Products (5%) and All Others (14%).  Most of these products entered the United States by Sea (86%) with the other categories being; Rail (2%), Truck (6%) and Air (6%).

Of the 1,400 shipments stopped for examination 77% (1,022) were found to have violations with 61% (622) of those requiring seizure.  These shipments were over the period from October 1, 2011 to September 5, 2013.

Of those violations that required seizure, the number one reason was for lead (34%) followed by a mechanical hazard (15%).  While all of this was interesting, most of this information has been issued throughout the year in CPSC press releases.  What was interesting was that during the QA portion of the presentation a question came up with regard to Children’s Product Certificates.  The question was, how did the CPSC observe company’s complying with the requirement of certificates “accompanying each shipment”?

Carol and John both said that certificates were either physically with the products (in the containers themselves), included with the importation documents submitted by brokers or in a unique URL printed on the invoice, PO or other importation document.

They were then asked if they stopped and seized shipments strictly for not having a certificate for which they responded no.  However,  they did say that beginning in the fiscal year 2014 they will be looking to see if the shipment does have a proper certificate.  This means that even if the shipment has passed the examination for chemical or physical hazard, the shipment can still be help up for a documentation (certificate) violation.

The Anatomy of a Children’s Product Certificate

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There has been a lot of confusion on what information needs to be included in a Children’s Product Certificate (CPC).  While the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has not given any guidance on the format of a CPC they have given detailed instructions on the type of information which needs to be included in a CPC (Final Rule, 16 CFR Part 1110, Certificates of Compliance dated November 18, 2008).

There are seven (7) major areas of information which at a minimum must be on each CPC and they include;

1. Identification of the product covered by this certificate:

The information provided here must be more than just the common name of the product as it is known by the consumer or retailer.  It must contain model, item or SKU number to uniquely identify the product from other products manufactured or imported by the issuer of the certificate.  The CPSC has allowed for “family” of products to be listed on the certificate where the testing has been the same or when the issuer is citing one laboratory report to show compliance for the whole family of products as for an example; the issuer had a stuffed bear that was in a variety of fabric colors and each color was a different item or SKU number and the testing was the same for each item or SKU number then one certificate could be issued for the family of bear products.

2. Citation to each CPSC product safety regulation to which this product is being certified:

Each CPSC product safety regulation must be listed which builds the case for compliance of the product.  The safety regulation must be identified so that there might not be any confusion as to what the safety regulation is.  As for example; if the product was tested for small parts then the safety regulation would be cited as, ASTM F963-08 (or most current version) Section 4.6 Small Parts.

3. Identification of the U.S. importer or domestic manufacturer certifying compliance of the product:

The information provided here MUST be the company name, full mailing address and telephone number of the manufacturer or importer of record certifying the product.

4. Contact information for the individual maintaining records of test results:

The information provided here MUST be the company name, full mailing address, e-mail address and telephone number of the person maintain test records for the company in support of the certification of the product.

5. Date and place where this product was manufactured:

The information provided can be the date or dates when the product was manufactured using at least a month and year format (MM/YYYY).  The place of manufacture needs to be identified as well with AT LEAST the city and country or administrative region of the place where the product was finally manufactured or assembled.  If the factory that produced the product has more than one location in the city listed then the street address of the factory will be used to further identify the place of manufacture.

6. Date and place where this product was tested for compliance with the regulation(s) cited above:

Information provided here must be the date or dates of the testing on the test reports, the report numbers and the location or locations of testing.

7. Identification of any third-party laboratory on whose testing the certificate depends:

The third-party laboratory which tested the product for conformity must be listed with AT LEAST their name, full mailing address and telephone number of the laboratory.

 

At the recent Toy Fair conference, Neil Cohen, Small Business Ombudsman of the CPSC announced that companies can use the same certificate and add Production Run / Tracking label information to it for each production run in the testing calendar year as long as there is no material change in that batch or run. This will give companies the option of consolidating certificates under each product. As more information regarding this practice becomes available, I will share it on this site.

Remember that the issuance of Children’s Product Certificates is the responsibility of the manufacturer and it is their duty to provide access to these reports with each sale to retailers. CPC’s are not required when selling directly to consumers.

Bill Jacoby is the principal at Jacoby Solutions which has developed a CPSIA Operational Readiness  CORE Audit to help companies identify risk and improve their company’s business operations.

The Retail Connection – Children’s Product Certificate

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Children's Product Certificates

By Bill Jacoby

CPSIA became fully effective on January 1st, 2012. As of this date, all Children’s product Manufacturers and Distributors are required to issue a Children’s Product Certificate (CPC), based on third-party testing from a CPSC-recognized laboratory, to Retailers and Distributors, and upon request to the CPSC for children’s products imported or distributed in commerce on or after Jan 1,2012. As a retailer, it is important to understand what is required of the manufacturer/importer who is providing the children’s products that you sell at the retail level. If you sell products on your website and the manufacturer drop ships the product, they are still technically responsible to send you the certificate.

What does certification of children’s products mean in light of current regulations?  Certification means the issuance of a written Children’s Product Certificate (CPC) in which the manufacturer, importer or private labeler certifies that the children’s product complies with all of the safety rules that applies to it.  This certification must be based upon the results of third-party testing that is used as the basis for which the manufacturer, importer or private labeler certifies the product.  The manufacturer, importer or private labeler by law is responsible for drafting and issuing the CPC.

This CPC must be furnished to the retailer and can be an actual hard copy of the certificate or the manufacturer/importer can provide a reasonable means to access the certificate such as a dedicated website.  A CPC does not have to be filed with the government.  The CPC must “accompany” the product shipment and be furnished to distributors or retailers, and upon request to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) or Customs.see CPSC advice here: http://www.cpsc.gov/info/toysafety/3ptfaq.html#cert2whom

If the product is manufactured overseas and imported into the country, a CPC is required with each import shipment.  This requirement applies to both imports and products that are manufactured domestically.  Again, the CPC can either be in a hard copy format or an electronic certificate (if the certificate is identified by a unique identifier and can be accessed via a web URL or other electronic means).

The CPC does not have to be signed by the manufacturer/importer as the act of issuing the certificate satisfies this regulation.  Failure to furnish a CPC or to issue a false certificate is a violation of the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA) and can lead to a civil penalty of between $100,000 and up to $15 million along with possible criminal penalties and asset forfeiture.

As a retailer, how are you set up to receive these certificates? Most likely they are being sent either as a pdf document or as a link to stored document. As you currently do not have a requirement to store these certificates, you should as good business practice be able to track certificates back to the manufacturer for products you sell. As the GCC/CPC requirement is not going away soon, now is the time to think about how you receive, store and or access these documents now before they start piling up and provide your preference of receipt to your manufacturer if asked as this will make it easier on you in the long run to access these certificates if requested.