CPSC Increases Toy Importer’s Penalty for Lead Paint & Reporting Violations
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced an increased civil penalty and revised provisional settlement agreement with Schylling Associates Inc. of Massachusetts to settle allegations that it: (i) violated the lead paint ban regarding toys it imported and sold; and (ii) failed to immediately report the problems to CPSC.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Comments are due by June 17, 2010.
Civil Penalty Doubled from Earlier Provisional Agreement
The agreement which has been provisionally accepted by CPSC, contains a civil penalty of $400,000, which is double the civil penalty contained in the previously announced provisional agreement with Schylling, which the Commissioners (in a vote of 3-2)1 rescinded and returned to CPSC staff for further consideration in February 2010.
Commissioners Asked for Stronger Penalty, Given Firm’s Conduct
In a statement on the agreement, Commissioner Northup states that Schylling distributed toys in commerce that contained paint with very high levels of lead and failed to report its violations to CPSC for five years. She stresses that these violations posed an actual risk of harm to children and were not mere technical offenses. Given the seriousness of the conduct at issue, Northup thinks that this revised settlement agreement and higher civil penalty is more appropriate than the original.
Resolves Allegations Importer Knew of Problem, Failed to Immediately Report
The revised civil penalty and settlement agreement resolves the following allegations:
Imported and sold non-compliant toys. According to CPSC, Schylling imported and sold toys that did not comply with the lead paint ban of 16 CFR Part 1303 as follows:
- imported approximately 66,000 units of non-compliant spinning top toys with Thomas and Friends, Curious George and Circus graphics between June 2001 and June 2002, and distributed them to retail business customers for sale to consumers;
- imported approximately 10,200 units of non-compliant tin pail toys with Thomas and Friends, Curious George and Primary Colors graphics from late January 2002 through March 2002, and distributed about 4,700 of them to retail customers for sale to consumers;
- imported approximately 3,600 units of non-compliant Winnie-the-Pooh style spinning top toys between April and May 2003, and distributed them to its customers for sale to consumers.
Knew or should have known of problems. By dates well before August 2007, (when CPSC was notified of the non-complying products), Schylling knew or should have known that at least a proportion of the subject tops and pails distributed in commerce did not comply with the lead paint ban.
Failed to report to CPSC in timely manner. In 2002, when Schylling first learned of the problem, it did not notify CPSC immediately as required. Instead, the company conducted a unilateral recall of the distributed pails by seeking their return from affected customers. The company also did not inform CPSC of the later problems. Although it eventually reported information about these toys to CPSC in 2007 and a voluntary recall was conducted, CPSC states that the company failed to report this information to the government in a timely manner.
1Commissioner Northup, Commissioner Adler, and Chairman Tenenbaum voted to rescind the agreement and return it to CPSC staff for further consideration.
(See ITT’s Online Archives or 02/05/10 news, 10020525, for BP summary of the February 2010 settlement agreement.)
(D/N 10-C0004)
Commissioner Northup’s statement available here.