In today’s evolving regulatory landscape, companies are being challenged to comply with the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. New certification requirements, adopted under that act, by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) will become effective in February 2013 for children’s products and will present significant changes including, but not limited to, corrective actions, tracking material changes, and the creation and storage of testing and product related documents. These requirements will be mandatory to certify a children’s product.

For apparel and hard goods, a Reasonable Testing Program is required. However, in October 2011, the CPSC chose to ‘reserve’ specific program requirements, leaving manufacturers and importers to identify appropriate measures based on existing guidance and proposed regulations. For retailers, this poses new challenges in determining if product on their shelves is compliant.