Welcome to the August edition of the Alston & Bird CPSC Recall Snapshot.

Last month, the CPSC held a Recall Effectiveness Workshop, which was organized to allow the CPSC staff and industry stakeholders to discuss the CPSC recall process. The CPSC focused on input from stakeholders on what an effective recall entails and achieves. Among the many topics discussed, the CPSC sought ideas on how to use new technologies and social media to improve recall effectiveness. In addition, a repeated idea pressed by several stakeholders was that the CPSC should utilize a tiered recall process similar to other federal agencies. In other words, procedures for more “dangerous” product recalls would differ from those for less dangerous product recalls, similar to the FDA’s tiered medical device approval procedures.