I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1197
To direct the Consumer Product Safety Commission to promulgate a con-
sumer products safety standard that requires manufacturers of certain 
consumer products to establish and maintain a system for providing 
notification of recalls of such products to consumers who first purchase 
such a product. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 11, 2003
Mr. MORAN of Virginia (for himself and Mr. MCGOVERN) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 
A BILL 
To direct the Consumer Product Safety Commission to pro-
mulgate a consumer products safety standard that re-
quires manufacturers of certain consumer products to 
establish and maintain a system for providing notifica-
tion of recalls of such products to consumers who first 
purchase such a product.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Product Safety Notifi-
cation and Recall Effectiveness Act of 2003’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Consumer Product Safety Commission 
conducts approximately 300 recalls of hazardous, 
dangerous, and defective consumer products each 
year. 
(2) In developing comprehensive corrective ac-
tion plans with recalling companies, the Consumer 
Product Safety Commission staff greatly relies upon 
the media and retailers to alert consumers to the 
dangers of unsafe consumer products, because the 
manufacturers do not generally possess contact in-
formation regarding the purchasing consumers. 
Based upon information received from companies 
maintaining customer registration lists, such contact 
information is known for generally less than 7 per-
cent of the total consumer products produced and 
distributed. 
(3) The Consumer Product Safety Commission 
has found that the consumers of the other 93 per-
cent of consumer products produced and distributed 
do not return purchaser identification cards because 
of requests for marketing and personal information 
in the cards, and the likelihood of receiving unsolic-
ited marketing materials.
(4) The Consumer Product Safety Commission 
has conducted research demonstrating that direct 
consumer contact is one of the most effective ways 
of motivating consumer response to a consumer 
product recall. 
(5) Companies that maintain consumer product 
purchase data, such as product registration cards, 
warranty cards, and rebate cards, are able to effec-
tively notify consumers of a consumer product recall. 
(6) The Consumer Product Safety Commission 
staff has found that a consumer product safety 
owner card, without marketing questions or requests 
for personal information, that accompanied products 
such as small household appliances and juvenile 
products would increase consumer participation and 
information necessary for direct notification in con-
sumer product recalls. 
(7) The National Highway Traffic Safety Ad-
ministration has, since March 1993, required similar 
simplified, marketing-free product registration cards 
on child safety seats used in motor vehicles, and has 
found that this has been successful in increasing re-
call compliance rates. 
(b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to reduce 
the number of deaths and injuries from defective and haz-
ardous consumer products through improved recall effec-
tiveness, by—
(1) requiring the Consumer Product Safety 
Commission to promulgate a consumer products 
safety standard to require manufacturers of juvenile 
products, small household appliances, and certain 
other consumer products, to include a simplified 
product safety owner card with those consumer 
products at the time of original purchase by con-
sumers, or develop effective electronic registration of 
the first purchasers of such products, to develop a 
customer database for the purpose of notifying con-
sumers about recalls of those products; and 
(2) encouraging manufacturers, private labelers, 
retailers, and others to use creativity and innovation 
to create and maintain effective methods of notifying 
consumers in the event of a consumer product recall. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
For purposes of this Act: 
(1) TERMS DEFINED IN CONSUMER PRODUCT 
SAFETY ACT.—The definitions set forth in section 3 
of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 
2052) shall apply to this Act. 
(2) COVERED CONSUMER PRODUCT.—The term 
‘‘covered consumer product’’ means—
(A) a juvenile product; 
(B) a small household appliance; and 
(C) such other consumer product as the 
Commission considers appropriate for achieving 
the purpose of this Act. 
(3) JUVENILE PRODUCT.—The term ‘‘juvenile 
product’’—
(A) means a durable consumer product in-
tended for use, or that may be reasonably ex-
pected to be used, by children under the age of 
5 years; and 
(B) includes, but is not limited to—
(i) full-size cribs and nonfull-size 
cribs; 
(ii) toddler beds; 
(iii) high chairs, booster chairs, and 
hook-on chairs; 
(iv) bath seats; 
(v) gates and other enclosures for con-
fining a child; 
(vi) playpens; 
(vii) stationary activity centers; 
(viii) strollers; 
(ix) walkers; 
(x) swings;
(xi) child carriers; 
(xii) bassinets and cradles; and 
(xiii) children’s toys. 
(4) PRODUCT SAFETY OWNER CARD.—The term 
‘‘product safety owner card’’ means a standardized 
product identification card supplied with a consumer 
product by the manufacturer of the product, at the 
time of original purchase by the first purchaser of 
such product for purposes other than resale, that 
only requests that the consumer of such product 
provide to the manufacturer a minimal level of per-
sonal information needed to enable the manufacturer 
to contact the consumer in the event of a recall of 
the product. 
(5) SMALL HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCE.—The term 
‘‘small household appliance’’ means a consumer 
product that is a toaster, toaster oven, blender, food 
processor, coffee maker, or other similar small appli-
ances. 
SEC. 4. CONSUMER PRODUCTS SAFETY STANDARD REQUIR-
ING SYSTEM TO PROVIDE NOTICE OF RE-
CALLS OF CERTAIN CONSUMER PRODUCTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall promulgate 
a consumer products safety standard under section 16(b) 
of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2065(b))
that requires that the manufacturer of a covered consumer 
product shall establish and maintain a system for pro-
viding notification of recalls of such product to consumers 
of such product. 
(b) REQUIREMENT TO CREATE DATABASE.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—The standard shall require 
that the system include use of product safety owner 
cards, Internet registration, or an alternative meth-
od specified by the standard, to create a database of 
information regarding consumers of covered con-
sumer products, for the sole purpose of notifying 
such consumers of recalls of such products. 
(2) USE OF TECHNOLOGY.—Alternative meth-
ods specified in the standard may include use of on-
line product registration and consumer notification, 
consumer information data bases, electronic tagging 
and bar codes, embedded computer chips in con-
sumer products, or other electronic and design strat-
egies to notify consumers about product recalls, that 
the Commission determines will increase the effec-
tiveness of recalls of covered consumer products. 
(c) USE OF COMMISSION STAFF PROPOSAL.—The 
standard shall be substantially the same as the Commis-
sion staff draft entitled ‘‘Advanced Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking entitled Purchaser Owner Card Program’’, 
dated June 19, 2001. 
(d) DEADLINES.—The Commission—
(1) shall issue a proposed standard under this 
section by not later than 90 days after the date of 
the enactment of this Act; and 
(2) shall promulgate a final standard under this 
section by not later than 270 days after the date of 
the enactment of this Act.
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