Ebay Policy Wonk & The CPSIA Law

A few days before Christmas I emailed Heather Kissle who is the ebay policy wonk for the Gymboree News & Gossip Newsletter I subscribe to. It is a newsletter that provides information to help ebay sellers who buy gymboree clothing for their kids or for re-sell. I asked her about the CPSIA law that I have been blogging about here. She responded that she was going to do an article about the law in the next newsletter. This is a paid subscription but I am going to post what she wrote here. I am going to keep posting new blogs concerning this matter as new information is gathered. Enjoy!

"

The Policy Wonk
By: Heather Kissel, Contributing Editor ~ heather@gymboreenews.com
Check out Heather's auctions at eBay ID multi*tasker

Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA)

If you haven’t heard yet about the CPSIA law, you will soon. Starting February 10, 2009, all children’s products will have to meet requirements for minimum contaminate levels, specifically lead (and in the future other chemicals). It is a great start to protecting our children from the hazards we clearly saw with the China toy recalls. However, with the way the law is written, it will pose issues for everyone selling children’s items on eBay. The law defines a child as someone 12 and under, so if you sell items to children above that age, you should be exempt from these requirements.

The law states that starting on 02/10/2009, lead levels cannot exceed 600ppm and that level will drop again on 08/14/2009 to 300ppm. Any items that contain levels of lead higher than that will be deemed hazardous materials, thereby banned and unfit (and illegal) for sale. All items intended for children 12 and under must be tested for lead by an independent party and must meet the minimum requirement before they can be sold. The burden of testing will fall on the manufacturer, but the retailer must be able to prove that the item has been tested. In other words, if you didn’t make the item but are selling it, you still need to be able to prove that the product meets the requirements of the law.

How that easily translates to eBay selling is that if you buy NWT items made after 02/10/2009, or are selling used items that were made after that date, you should have absolutely no issues selling those items; Gymboree (or any other manufacturer) will carry the burden in testing their items for lead levels and you as a third party seller will be clear in the eyes of the law. The sticky wicket is on items manufactured prior to 02/10/2009. Congress is well aware of the issue, as are huge second-hand conglomerates like Goodwill and Value Village. The CPSIA law already has sections that prohibit any stockpiling of inventory, which indicates that the law will be applied retroactively. What that means is that those items manufactured before 02/10/2009 would be deemed banned hazardous materials, unfit and illegal for sale. Yikes!

In September, Congress issued a clarification to the law aimed specifically at items manufactured before 02/10/2009. Since these laws are written by lawyers and politicians, the language is difficult to interpret, but here is my best effort. There is an August 2008 manufacturing date written into the CPSIA law, which means that the February 2009 date is 180 days later. That is important because it appears that there is a 6 month “grace period” built in, where retailers are to dispose of their non-tested inventory in preparation for the new inventory, which lo and behold, happens to be 02/10/2009. The one line that is completely unambiguous is, “Products with more than 600ppm of lead must come off the shelves no later than February 10, 2009, 180 days after enactment.”

So what does that last line mean to eBayers? It essentially means that if you chose to sell children’s items that were made before 02/10/2009, you have to test those items for lead yourself by an independent certified testing place to ensure they are meeting the minimum requirements. Holy cow! I can completely understand the need to remove all leaded items from the marketplace; imagine if we allowed old lead paint or toys to still be sold. But I can also understand the waste of disposing of used clothing or toys because people won’t test them for their garage sale or eBay inventory.

As written at this point, the law is still ambiguous as to whether or not it will be applied retroactively. That is our sunny ray of hope. Our other hope is that large second-hand corporations like Goodwill will continue to work on the language with Congress, as they too have a vested interest in having this law revised. EBay has not taken a stand or action on the law at this point, but they cannot keep their head in the sand forever; I don’t put it past them to do much about it until the eleventh hour, and if history repeats itself, they will only ban items, not do much to revise the law. Amazon has already created an entire help page for sellers, complete with new data fields for the new CPSIA law and Etsy has issued a letter to the office of the CPSC ombudsman.

The last issue I cannot even begin to grapple with would be hand-made items. Since fabrics, buttons, snaps, etc would not be specifically marketed to children, they would not have to be tested for lead by the manufacturer. That would mean that whoever makes items for children, such as pageant wear, customs, costumes, etc, would need to test their items before sale. I can't imagine the cost, but would think it could be prohibitive to any profits.

Let’s all contact our congressmen and women about revising the law so that small business owners (which is what eBay sellers really are) can continue our eBay lifestyle. To learn more about the CPSIA law, click here."