The head of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said the agency will crack down in several ecommerce-related areas, including marketplaces’ responsibilities to issue recalls for sales by third-party sellers; and inspections of direct-to-consumer imports from China currently exempted by de minimis thresholds.
CPSC Acting Chairman Peter Feldman spoke at the National Retail Federation’s NRF Retail Law Summit in early March attended by over 1,200 attorneys and others.
The agency had found Amazon responsible for recalls in a final order issued in January, but the CPSC’s Feldman told attendees at the NRF summit that the agency has had “limited success” in working with online marketplaces to implement recalls despite its determination that they can be considered distributors and required to comply.
Amazon has since sued the CPSC. In addition to claiming statutory shortcomings in its March 14th lawsuit, Amazon claimed the CPSC structure violated the constitutional separation of powers.
Feldman also said that while the agency has tried to negotiate with manufacturers when issuing a recall so that consumers can be given a replacement, repair or refund, working with Chinese companies has been particularly challenging because “more often than not,” they are unreachable.
The Acting Director also said the government was still planning on resuming the collection of tariffs on packages from China that had been exempt through de minimis. US buyers don’t have to pay duties on imported goods priced under $800, and the current administration eliminated de minimis from China, which will go into effect as soon as adequate systems are in place to process and collect the tariffs.
The NRF reported: “While the 2023 INFORM Act requires online marketplaces to collect and verify information about online sellers regardless of de minimis, Feldman said it is “sometimes impossible” to bring lawsuits against Chinese companies that violate safety regulations, making “enforcement at the ports … a first line of defense” at keeping unsafe Chinese products out of the country.”
You can find its post about the presentation on the NRF Blog.