The Consumer Product Safety Commission has launched a new product safety website. The website will allow consumers to search a database of products that have been identified as having potential safety issues and file new reports about problems they have experienced.
The CPSC officially launched the SaferProducts.gov website on March 11.
Required by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, the database collects defect reports and product recall announcements onto one website for public access. In addition, consumers can write up a report on devices they have found to be defective or to have caused an adverse effect and then submit those reports to the CPSC for review. Reports that are deemed valid will be posted to the website and will be searchable by other consumers in a little more than two weeks after being submitted.
“I believe that an informed consumer is an empowered consumer” CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum said in a press release. “The ability for parents and consumers to search this database for incidents involving a product they already own or are thinking of purchasing will enable them to make independent decisions aimed at keeping their family safe.”
The CPSC has been registering businesses on the website since late January. Businesses can go to the website and see what reports have been filed on their products or have those reports e-mailed to them. Each business gets 10 days to respond to any consumer complaint before it is published online. Reports that the CPSC determines are invalid will not be posted.
About 1,500 comments by consumers were accepted, processed and posted before the website launch. New consumer reports will likely begin appearing in early April, the CPSC estimates.
If you or someone you know has been injured by a defective product, contact the the defective product lawyers at the Alexander Law Group, LLP by email or call 888.777.1776. All calls free and confidential.
