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CPSC Durable Infant/Toddler Product Registration
December 14, 2009

During its December 9, 2009 meeting, the Commissioners of the Consumer Product Safety Commission considered a draft final rule to establish requirements for durable infant and toddler products so that consumers could register these products and be notified directly if the product is the subject of a recall or safety alert.

Infant/Toddler Rule Would Make Domestic Manufacturer or Importer Responsible, Apply to 18 Products, Etc.

According to CPSC staff, the draft final rule it presented for Commission consideration on consumer registration and labeling for durable infant and toddler products is similar to its proposed rule, but would make the following changes:

Specify responsible party. The final rule would specify the party responsible for meeting the final rule’s requirements as the domestic manufacturer (in the case of domestic products) or the importer (in the case of imported products). These requirements include providing consumer registration cards with each subject durable infant/toddler product, permanently marking such products with certain identifying information, maintaining records of consumer registration information, etc.

Apply to 18 listed products. CPSC staff state that the final rule would only apply to the twelve durable infant and toddler products originally listed in the CPSIA as well as six other products they believe meet the definition of durable infant and toddler products. Though CPSC could consider the inclusion of other products in the future, staff feels that limiting the final rule’s scope to a set of listed products will provide more certainty for industry than including a narrative definition of the scope.

The original twelve products include: (1) full-size cribs and nonfull-size cribs; (2) toddler beds; (3) high chairs, booster chairs, and hook-on chairs; (4) bath seats; (5) gates and other enclosures for confining a child; (6) play yards; (7) stationary activity centers; (8) infant carriers; (9) strollers; (10) walkers; (11) swings; and (12) bassinets and cradles.

The additional six products would include: (1) children’s folding chairs; (2) changing tables; (3) bouncers; (4) infant bath tubs; (5) bed rails; and (6) infant slings.

Two-tier effective date. The draft final rule would be effective six months after its publication for the 12 products originally listed in the CPSIA and one year after publication for the 6 products added by CPSC.

Format. The final rule would also specify certain issues regarding the format of the registration cards and product labels. Among other things, the final rule would allow the date of manufacture on the product labels to be expressed in code form.

Recordkeeping. Though the draft final rule presented by staff would maintain the six year recordkeeping requirement for consumer information, several of the Commissioners supported expanding that requirement to a longer period of time.