When it comes to OTC pharmaceuticals and most personal care products, we’ve become accustomed to breaking layers of plastic bands, packaging seals and shrink-wrapped liners, whether opening a new bottle of ibuprofen or a fresh jar of moisturizer. When that seal is broken by someone other than us, we’re warned and conditioned to think that foul play has probably occurred. We understand that the product could be adulterated, contaminated or otherwise altered, rendering it unsafe.
Continue ReadingWhen there’s a recall, consumers think of the name on the package. Often that brand is the single company believed to be responsible, and that company is the one whose reputation is diminished. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than the food industry, where one ingredient from a supplier that consumers have never heard of can spark recalls across big brands and private labels.
Continue ReadingThe biggest news coming out of the Consumer Product Safety Commission lately is Acting Chairwoman Ann Marie Buerkle’s decision to step down from her post when her term ends in October. Members of the Senate Commerce subcommittee on Manufacturing, Trade, and Consumer Protection seized on that announcement to grill Buerkle and her fellow commissioners about alleged lax CPSC regulation during a recent oversight hearing.
Continue ReadingWYou identified a potential safety issue with your product and conducted an investigation. You worked closely with your regulator to plan for and execute a recall. Your team worked tirelessly to communicate with consumers and fix the issue. Then the regulator closed the recall. And you moved on. Or so you thought. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration recently launched separate investigations into whether two GM recalls conducted years ago were inadequate.
Continue ReadingFake product recalls – unlike other claims of so-called “fake news” – are exceedingly rare. But they are not without precedence. Just last year, a car dealership in Washington, D.C., was heavily fined by the Federal Trade Commission for sending fake recall warnings to car owners in the hopes of drumming up more business for the dealership’s repair shop. The dealership sent out bright red mailers that mimicked official recall notices from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
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