New Year, New Rules: Consumer Product Safety Commission Safety Testing and Certification Rules Taking Effect for Children's Products

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 requires every manufacturer (defined to include an importer) of a consumer product subject to a rule, ban, standard or regulation under any Act enforced by the CPSC to certify compliance with each applicable standard before importing the product or distributing it in commerce. With limited exceptions, such certification of a children's product (a consumer product designed or intended primarily for children 12 years or younger) must be based on testing of the product by a third party laboratory accepted by CPSC to test the applicable standards. The certification requirement has become effective for individual standards on a rolling basis since 2008, although regulations detailing requirements for testing and certification were first published in November 2011. 16 C.F.R. Part 1109, which permits a manufacturer to base certification on component part testing or certification, or another party's finished product testing or certification, went into effect in December 2011. 16 C.F.R. Part 1107, which has additional provisions concerning the certification, ongoing testing and labeling of children's products, goes into effect February 8, 2013 for products manufactured after that date.