On June 15, Chuck Samuels, Co-Chair of Mintz Levin's Consumer Product Safety Regulatory Practice Group, provided testimony to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) at the Commission's Meeting on its Agenda and Priorities for FY 2017 and 2018. Chuck's testimony focused on the Commission's increasing imposition of heightened civil penalties for alleged violations of statutes and regulations enforced by the CPSC, including Section 15(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Act. We have previously written about this important issue.
The following summary of Chuck's remarks can be found here within the full briefing package for the Commission and are as follows:
"Critical to effective operation of our federal product safety regulatory regime and to consumer protection is a robust system of Section 15 reporting by regulated entities and appropriate penalties for late or no reporting. The system is under stress in an era of both heightened penalties and increasing scrutiny of less obviously and more minor hazardous patterns of product failures...Fortunately, actions can be taken to improve the CPSC's transparency and ability of the regulated community to understand the reporting and civil penalty regimes without constraining the CPSC from carrying out its critical mission. Use of standard government and stakeholder communication techniques should be explored (e.g., workshops, advisory committees, hearings, outside neutral expert input). This would possibly lead to enhanced guidance and/or new methods consistent with the law and more effectively promoting compliance with the law."
Chuck's full remarks to the Commission can be found here around the 12:25 time marker. The Q & A portion of the testimony can be found between the 1:00:00 and 1:17:00 time marker.
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