In this video, I discuss the recent Tracking Labels guidance and its use of terms like "reasonable judgment" and "good faith efforts". No one is quite sure what these terms mean precisely, creating doubts in the marketplace on how to make those difficult "gray area" decisions. This ambiguity is "par for the course" with the CPSIA and has kindled a compliance competition among retailers, something I call Regulatory Compliance Exuberance. An example of this is TRU's announcement that it will be enforcing a 100 ppm lead substrate limit as of January 1, 2010, almost two years before the CPSC even has to consider such a limit. We have seen at least two retailers demanding tracking labels on merchandise made before August 14, too. Ouch. . . .
In addition, the CPSC left its enforcement authority open-ended by declining to define these terms. In other words, the rules seem to permit second guessing of manufacturers, likely in the context of a recall (a failure). Are they trying to incentivize a good decision-making process, or are they simply waiting to punish bad outcomes? Can you ever be on "safe ground" under the guidance?
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Rick, Thank you for clearing up this "imputed knowledge" issue...it will save me thousands of dollars in marriage counseling. See, I couldn't quite figure out why, for no apparent reason, my wife would give me the silent treatment or send me to the couch for the evening. It has now dawned on me after your lesson on imputed knowledge that I have imputed knowledge of what my wife "really means" when she speaks even if she doesn't say what she "really" means! So when she tells me that I can go play golf on Sunday, I have imputed knowledge that what she "really" means is that I better not think twice about leaving to play golf as I am expected to stay home and help her sort her sock drawer. Perhaps I need to read the book "The CPSC is From Venus and Common Sense is From Mars". I think I should go to law school to keep up with the CPSC. The average small business owner doesn't have a prayer to cope under such ambiguous, contradictory guidance from the CPSC. Thanks for the translation!
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