CPSC Delays Testing and Certification Requirements for Consumer Products

As a result of substantial confusion regarding the Consumer Product Safety Act's new certification requirements, the Commission Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced in today's Federal Register that it will postpone for one year, until February 10, 2010, the new certification and testing requirements applicable to imported and domestically manufactured consumer products that were required by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008.

The CPSC's testing and certification requirements were published by the CPSC in the Federal Register on November 18, 2008.

The notice states that the CPSC received literally thousands of email, telephone, and written inquiries as to how to comply, when to comply, what is required in support of the various certifications, what form the required certificates must take, and who must issue them.

While the CPSC's decision leaves in place previous certification requirements applicable to certain products and does not affect the new testing and certification applicable to certain children's products, this decision will delay for one-year the certification and testing requirements for most imported and domestically produced consumer products.