I
107TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3658
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
JANUARY 29, 2002
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 2002’’.
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.
(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—
(i) full-size cribs and nonfull-size
cribs;
(ii) toddler beds;
(iii) car seats;
(iv) high chairs, booster chairs, and
hook-on chairs;
(v) bath seats;
(vi) gates and other enclosures for
confining a child;
(vii) playpens;
(viii) stationary activity centers;
(ix) strollers;
(x) walkers;
(xi) swings;
(xii) child carriers; and
(xiii) bassinets and cradles.
(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 the Consumer
Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2051 et seq.) that requires
that the manufacturer of a covered consumer product shall
establish and maintain a system for providing 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.
Æ