The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC or the Commission) is a small federal agency with a big job: protecting consumers from unreasonable risks of injury associated with the use of thousands of types of consumer products. With an Operating Plan budget for fiscal year 2020 of $132.5 million and 539 employees1—tiny by federal government standards—CPSC uses safety data submitted by companies pursuant to the notification requirements under Section 15 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA) to help carry out the agency's mandate.2 Further, following implementation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA), which dramatically increased the maximum penalties for noncompliance,3 CPSC has aggressively pursued multi-million-dollar penalties for alleged late reporting under Section 15 and other violations.
Congress created CPSC as an independent commission, which means that it does not report to the President either directly or through any department or agency of the federal government. CPSC can have up to five Commissioners, one of whom serves as Chair, and only three of whom can be from the same political party. CPSC's Chair and Commissioners are appointed by the President for seven-year terms with the advice and consent of the Senate.4 On October 1, 2019, Robert S. Adler (D) became Acting Chair by a majority vote of the Commission to replace the departing Acting Chair, Ann Marie Buerkle (R), whose term as Commissioner expired at the end of October 2019.5 As a result, until another Commissioner is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, the Commission is evenly split with two Republican Commissioners (Dana Baiocco and Peter A. Feldman) and two Democratic Commissioners (Robert S. Adler and Elliot F. Kaye).
This desk reference first explains the Section 15 notification requirements, including the broad scope of CPSC's jurisdiction, and then discusses routes to a product safety recall, reporting and recall trends, and penalties for late reporting.
Footnotes
1. CPSC, Fiscal Year 2021, Performance Budget Report to Congress, February 10, 2020.
2. Pub. L. No. 92-573, 86 Stat. 1207 (1972), codified at 15 U.S.C. §§ 2051-2089.
3. Pub. L. No. 110-314, § 217, 122 Stat. 3016, 3058 (2008).
4. 15 U.S.C. § 2053.
5. See PN1360 — 115th Congress (2017-2018), Nomination of Ann Marie Buerkle to Be a Commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (Jan. 8, 2018); PN57 — 116th Congress (2019-2020), Nomination of Ann Marie Buerkle to Be a Commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (Jan. 16, 2019). Her first term expired in October 2018, and she was able to serve for up to one additional year pending her confirmation for another term. See 15 U.S.C. § 2053(b)(2).
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
