Mattel, Fisher-Price pay $2.3M fine - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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million civil penalty for violations of the federall lead paint banin children’s toys. The civil fine comees after the completed an investigation into the importing and sellinyg of toys with lead paint levels that exceededthe .06 percenf lead by weight limit that is federally mandated. Accordin g to the CPSC, which recently craftex the Consumer Product SafetytImprovement Act, aimed at toughening requirements for lead and phthalates in children’s products, Mattel imported up to 900,000p non-compliant toys between July 2006 and Septembet 2007. Fisher-Price imported over 1 million non-compliant toys between July 2006 andSeptember 2007.
Among the toys in questionm were the popular Sargetoy car, variousx Barbie products and some Go Diego Go toys. Most of the toys that had excessiver levels of lead were shipped to retailk stores for sale tothe public. In 2007, a massive toy recalkl took place where about 95 Matteoland Fisher-Price toy models were determined to have exceededs the lead limit. Lead can be toxid if ingested by young children and can cause serioushealty problems. The topic of lead paintt in children’s products has been a hot buttom issue as of with the rollout of the controversial CPSIAof 2008.
Toy manufactureres and retailers have said the new regulations are costlyand arbitrary, often requirinvg the duplicate testing of products. Some smallert manufacturers say the laws threaten to put them out of On thepolitical Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, said protecting children has to be thetop “When the toy recall happened (in I called the head of Fisher-Price and I told him they needecd to start making their toys here again,” Slaughter “We didn’t have these kind of problemx before they imported the toys.
” This civil penalty, which is the highest for violations involving importation or distribution of a regulated product, is the thirsd highest of any kind in CPSC “These highly publicized toy recalls helped spur Congressionaol action last year to strengthen CPSC and make even strictee the ban on lead paintf on toys,” said CPSC Acting Chairman Thomaes Moore. “This penalty should servs notice to toy makers that CPSC is committed to the safety of children, to reducing their exposure to and to the implementationj of the Consumer Product Safetty Improvement Act.
” As part of a story featuredf in our sister publication, The Buffalo Law Journal , lookiny at the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which ran priorf to the announcement of these Fisher-Price declined to provide a representative to discuss the lead pain regulations. Instead, they issued a written statemen twhich read, in part: “Mattel is well positionedr as it generally designs its products to meet globapl standards.
Mattel has also been a leader in the effortxs of industry to establish voluntary industry The statement also said that Mattel woulx continue to comply with the applicable regulations of the Mattel was unable to be reachedr for commentMonday morning, thougu a representative said they would have a response later in the day. Despite agreeing to pay $2.3 million in penalties, Matteol and Fisher-Price deny that they knowinglyu violatedfederal law, as alleged by CPSC staff.