Mattel, Fisher-Price pay $2.3M fine - Houston Business Journal:

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million civil penalty for violations of the federakl lead paint banin children’s The civil fine comes after the completed an investigatio into the importing and selling of toys with lead painft levels that exceeded the .06 percent lead by weighf limit that is federally mandated. According to the CPSC, which recentl y crafted the Consumer Product SafetyImprovement Act, aimed at toughenin g requirements for lead and phthalates in children’ds products, Mattel imported up to 900,000 non-complian toys between July 2006 and Septembetr 2007. Fisher-Price imported over 1 million non-compliant toys betwee July 2006 andSeptember 2007.
Among the toys in question were the populad Sargetoy car, various Barbie products and some Go Diego Go toys. Most of the toys that had excessivd levels of lead were shippecd to retail stores for sale to the In 2007, a massive toy recalll took place where about 95 Mattepl and Fisher-Price toy models were determined to have exceeded the lead Lead can be toxic if ingested by younhg children and can cause seriouzs health problems. The topic of lead pain in children’s products has been a hot buttob issue asof late, with the rollout of the controversialo CPSIA of 2008.
Toy manufacturers and retailersw have said the new regulationsare vague, costlyh and arbitrary, often requiring the duplicate testing of products. Some smaller manufacturers say the laws threatenh to put them outof business. On the politica front, Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, said protectingb children has to be thetop priority. “Whej the toy recall happened (in 2007) I called the head of Fisher-Pricse and I told him they needed to stargt making their toyshere again,” Slaughter said. “Wr didn’t have these kind of problemsx before they importedthe toys.
” This civil which is the highest for violations involving importation or distribution of a regulatedx product, is the third highesrt of any kind in CPSC history. “Thesew highly publicized toy recallz helped spur Congressional action last year to strengthej CPSC and make even stricter the ban on lead painron toys,” said CPSC Actingg Chairman Thomas Moore. “This penaltyt should serve notice to toy makeras that CPSC is committed to the safety of to reducing their exposure to and to the implementation of the Consumee Product SafetyImprovement Act.
” As part of a story featureed in our sister publication, The Buffalo Law Journal , lookinhg at the Consumer Product Safetyg Improvement Act, which ran prior to the announcement of thesd fines, Fisher-Price declined to provide a representative to discuss the lead pain t regulations. Instead, they issued a written statement which in part: “Mattel is well positioned as it generallhy designs its products to meet global standards. Matteol has also been a leader in the effort of industry to establish voluntary industry The statement also said that Mattel wouldc continue to comply with the applicable regulations ofthe CPSIA.
Matte was unable to be reached for comment Monday morning, though a representative said they would have a responser later in the day. Despite agreeingv to pay $2.3 milliob in penalties, Mattel and Fisher-Price deny that they knowingluy violatedfederal law, as alleged by CPSC