David P. Callet

Let’s talk about chemicals in your company’s products. Like all consumer products, promotional products are subject to two different but interwoven forces. On the one hand, both federal and state laws and regulations limit the quantities of certain chemicals and heavy metals permitted in your products. On the other hand, your company faces an increasingly significant phenomenon that can be called “retail regulation,” meaning that retailers react to what people think, whether this thinking is accurate or not.

In his “State of Product Safety” speech at the 2015 ICPHSO Annual Meeting, CPSC Chairman Elliot Kaye stated that the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) increase in permissible civil penalties for violations of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) demonstrates Congress’ intent to punish, deter and make sure that civil penalties are not just the “cost of doing business.” He further noted, “I don’t think … that we are seeing civil penalties that are reflective of what Congress expected and demanded of us in the CPSIA.”