New Measure to Stop Thrift Stores and Online Shops from Reselling Recalled Products

September 17, 2009

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has enforced a new measure that prohibits people and business entities from reselling recalled products in online stores such as Craigslist, eBay, and Amazon, and in thrift stores and garage sales.

In a statement, CPSC Spokesman Patty Davis said the agency’s main goal is to prevent consumers from passing a hazardous product to another person.

Last year, then President George W. Bush signed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act that makes selling recalled products a federal crime. This law also enforces stricter standards for selling children’s toys that contain lead, a chemical that affects cognitive and physical development of young people.

However, some organizations criticized the Congress for passing the Act and calling this as “something which is not based on common sense” and “may have negative effect to the industry.”

In an interview, Alliance for Children’s Product Safety Rick Woldenberg said the new measure has pulled off from the shelves products ranging from books, bicycles, pens, and socks which are not even dangerous.

Woldenberg said the unnecessary provisions in the Act “will even require people to test rocks and fossils for lead before these can be shown to a classroom with children aged 12 years and younger.”

Despite the outcries from different sectors, CPCS will start to conduct its Resale Roundup project to train thrift store owners and their employees about hazardous products, especially those which may contain lead.

This project will also allow CPCS agents to make unannounced safety checks to thrift stores and shops selling second-hand items.