CPSC to Relax General Certificate Requirement for Household Refrigerators
The Consumer Product Safety Commission will no longer require a general certificate of conformity for household refrigerators if the refrigerators are labeled as in compliance, the CPSC said in notice. As of Aug. 2, the CPSC "will not pursue compliance or enforcement actions against manufacturers, importers or private labelers of household refrigerators for failure to issue, provide, or make available" the GCCs that were required under the Refrigerator Safety Act. The RSA was passed in 1956 to prevent deaths of children that become trapped in refrigerators, which were at the time often equipped with external latches, the CPSC said. A review of CPSC data found no entrapment deaths or compliance cases in at least the last 20 years, the agency said.
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The shift in policy was suggested by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers in response to a CPSC request for comments on reducing regulatory burdens. The CPSC found that the compliance label requirement "could reduce costs manufacturers and importers incur when issuing and distributing a GCC, while maintaining the safety protection the RSA provides." Refrigerators must still comply with the standards and CPSC can still take enforcement action if there is no label or if a label is misrepresented, it said. "Should the Commission become aware of unsafe products entering the market as a result of this statement of policy, it reserves the right to withdraw the policy prospectively with no less than 90 days’ notice."