This second installment of our series highlights the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) presence and guidance at this year’s ICPHSO annual symposium. CPSC had a notably smaller presence this year. Agency representatives at the symposium included Jim Joholske from the Office of Import Surveillance, Stephen Lee from the Small Business Ombudsman Team, and Jonathan Midgett from Consumer Ombudsman. Despite the smaller presence, CPSC speakers provided a number of insights to consumer product safety stakeholders.
During their presentation, CPSC representatives highlighted the agency’s priorities moving forward, including forthcoming rules and enforcement priorities. CPSC placed particular emphasis on its continued regulation of baby products, highlighting a number of new rules and performance standards for baby and toddler products that will go into effect in 2025. These include new regulations on infant play yards, non-full sided cribs, soft infant/toddler carriers, nursing pillows, and infant support cushions.
CPSC’s emphasis on baby and toddler products at ICPHSO mirrors its increased enforcement efforts and focus on infant products. Since 2022, CPSC has issued new standards for crib mattresses and infant sleep products; banned crib bumpers and inclined infant sleepers; and revised standards for infant swings, carriages and strollers, highchairs, baby changing products, infant bathtubs, frame carriers, slings, bouncer seats, infant walkers, and bedside sleepers.
CPSC’s presentation at ICPHSO also emphasized the challenges posed by e-commerce and de minimis foreign shipments. De minimis shipments are those valued at less than $800, which may enter the United States with relatively little scrutiny. Many products sold on foreign e‑commerce are inexpensive, bringing shipments under the $800 limit. The de minimis loophole presents enforcement challenges for CPSC, making it harder to target and block shipments with illegal or unsafe consumer products when suppliers with little or no U.S. presence distribute consumer products through these e-commerce platforms. Over four million de minimis shipments enter the United States every day at 347 ports of entry, presenting an overwhelming enforcement challenge for CPSC.
CPSC representatives expressed optimism that new eFiling requirements for imports, which go into effect in 2027, will help CPSC to more effectively identify high-risk shipments. The new eFiling program will apply to all imported consumer products subject to a mandatory safety standard, including de minimis shipments. Importers of regulated consumer products that require certification must electronically file data elements including product identification, the party certifying compliance, applicable consumer product safety rules, manufacture date and place, testing date and laboratory, and contact information of the person maintaining test records. CPSC anticipates that eFiling will enhance its ability to identify and target high-risk shipments and streamline collaboration with customs agents to designate imported shipments for inspection.CPSC certainly tried to message its intent to continue aggressive enforcement tactics in pursuit of the agency’s missions, but its smaller presence at this year’s ICPHSO symposium may signal a broader lack of funding and inability to carry through on enforcement priorities. Still, companies need to stay aware of product safety regulatory requirements, particularly as states start to fill any perceived regulatory gaps.