Last night , the Consumer Product Safety Commission ( CPSC ) issued a statement warn consumer to barricade using the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone , even if they ’d let a substitute , because the phones are still overheat andcausing fires . Thankfully , Samsung was okay with the CPSC ’s statement — because if the fellowship did n’t care it , the affirmation would n’t have been give up .
Because of incision 6B of theConsumer Product Safety Act , added by Congress in 1981 , companies have the power to restrict and even edit what the CPSC can tell the public about their ware . Americans are mostly under the imprint that US regulatory agencies have relatively unlimited freedom to protect consumer . But agencies like the CPSC , tasked with protecting us from things liketoppling dressersand exploding smartphones , are often at the clemency of the companies they ’re speculate to be watching .
“ Our way is not permitted to discuss a product if we do n’t give the ship’s company 10 days note on what we require to say , ” Scott Wolfson , Communications Director at the CPSC , said over the earpiece .
Illustration by Sam Woolley from a photo by Getty Images
If the company object to whatever the CPSC wants to tell the populace , the ship’s company can recoil the statement back to the agency , which has another five days to negotiate with the society about verbiage .
The section “ is unparalleled in government , ” allege Rachel Weintraub of the Consumer Federation of America , a nonprofit consumer protagonism organization . “ Normally what happens in the process of negotiating a recall , every Logos of the dismissal is talk terms . Consumer groups have long been fighting to get rid of this supply or limit its very broad scope . ”
Remember Samsung ’s “ unofficial recall ” of the Galaxy Note 7 , back when there were just 35 reported burst ? It was n’t a recall at all , since the fellowship did n’t get the CPSC regard . As a result , the bureau could n’t discourage consumer about what was happening in a timely style . Samsung ’s “ unofficial reminiscence ” subsequently hampered the agency ’s power to get the defective earpiece off shelves .
“ What should have happened is the company comes to us in good order away and we can quickly bend around , once we get all the information we need , the proper recall , ” CPSC ChairmanElliot Kaye saidin September after Samsung finally put out a proper recall . Samsung announced today that it would finallystop makingthe Galaxy Note 7 .
Without steering from CPSC , other agency , like the FAA , were paralyzed . When the break loose Galaxy Note 7 storey broke over Labor Day weekend , I contacted the FAA about whether the earphone were stillallowed on airplanes . Because there had n’t been a right recall yet , the FAAcouldn’t flatly saythat the explosive smartphones should n’t be allowed on planes .
A handful of organizations are fighting for the CPSC to mouth more openly about production condom , without company approval . But company have their own lobbying grouping to verify that this does n’t find . organisation like theJuvenile Products Manufacturers Associationand the National Association of Manufacturers crusade any effort to give the CPSC more independence . And they have rich pocket : We do n’t know how much these groups spend on this exceptional issue , but The National Association of Manufacturers expend almost $ 17 million on general lobbying effortslast year alone .
I ’ve extend to out to both the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association ( JPMA ) and the National Association of Manufacturers ( NAM ) . JPMA did not add a comment by deadline , and I ’ve yet to hear back from NAM .
Most of the effort from consumer advocacy groups , like the Consumer Federation of America , have fail . But the CFA was able to get a government - funded website created that gives consumers more info about dangerous products . That site is calledSaferproducts.gov .
“ Before [ Saferproducts.gov ] went live , if the consumer was researching a especial production , there was no database that had that information , ” Weintraub tells me . “ You could look up products that had been recalled with ecumenical information from CPSC . But this at least now provides a way to inform consumers . ”
The long - term goal is to get incision 6B of the Consumer Product Safety Act tamed , so that the CPSC can really admonish consumers without being forced to ask company for license . “ 6B is fully in event and it entirely constrains the way ’s ability to talk about a specific production or a specific hazard unless that entity gives license to the agency to put across , ” Weintraub said .
CPSC is n’t only restricted in populace . The agency even has to secern companies when a Freedom of Information Act asking has been submitted to the agency about them . As a frequent FOIA requester , it ’s a safe bet that my name is about to get passed to a slew of different caller this week .
“ It ’s a pretty wide anti - transparency proviso , ” Weintraub says of Section 6B. “ There ’s a proposed rule to update 6B , but Industry has been inexorable in confrontation to what we think is a very pocket-size rule . ”
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