BILL NUMBER:  S6508A

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the general business law, in
relation to requiring online market places to provide a product recall
search web form

 PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL :

To require online marketplace websites that facilitate the sale of
products online to implement a web form that checks if if the product
a person is trying to sell is the subject of a recall by the US
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and to prevent the illegal
sale of a recalled item that may pose a danger to a child or infant.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1: Definitions and how the check form functions and obtains
its data, and penalties for failure to implement.

Section 2: Effective date

 JUSTIFICATION :

Online marketplace websites such as Amazon, eBay, & Craigslist
facilitate the sale of products from one individual to another on
their platforms. The problem is that these sites have loose
              

requirements on what information a seller must post on the site
regarding the product they are trying to sell. This results in the
customer not knowing the full extent of what they are purchasing and
said product may be hazardous to the health and safety of the
customer. Only 14% of 2014's recalled children's products were
successfully corrected, replaced or returned according to a report
published by Kids in Danger, an advocacy group dedicated to improving
children's product safety. Compared to 2015, the number of children's
product recalls increased 12 percent in 2016.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission says that the sale of any
product that has been recalled is illegal and violators can be charged
up to $15 million in federal fines. A sale of a recalled product
whether in a garage sale, toy store, or online are equally illegal and
the agency advises consumers, "when in doubt, throw it out".

Sellers continue to use online marketplace websites to sell products
that may have been recalled despite the minimalist warnings providing
by the operators of these sites. Often, sellers don't know that the
product has been recalled and it doesn't occur to many people to
check.

The proposed solution is to have a check form on the webpage where a
seller posts information about the product that can live check the
CPSC's federal database to see if the product a person is attempting
to sell has been recalled. It if has been recalled, then the sale is
blocked. If the seller does not have enough information to identify
the product to check to see if it is listed on the CPSC database,
space is provided for the seller to acknowledge that that he or she
has read and understands the following: "I do not have enough
information to determine if the product has been recalled. I have read
the related guidelines regarding selling recalled products and I
understand my responsibility not to sell a recalled product."

The CPSC has published a document titled, "CPSC Recalls Retrieval, Web
Services Programmers Guide" which enables programmers and application
developers to access the recalled products database. The federal
agency has provided the tools necessary to access their database to
implement said check form.

https://www.cpsc.g v/Recalls/CPSC-Rs-Applica ion-Program-Inte
face-API- Information

This check form will not only bring awareness to buyers and sellers of
the law regarding the selling of recalled products, but also to
prevent a recalled product at the point of sale from eventually
getting into the hands of a child or infant. There are too many
individual listings of products for sale to be individually checked so
this form allows for self-governance to combat this problem.

In alignment with the federal government's maximum fine for the sale
of a recalled product, failure to implement the form would be up to
$15 million. The State Attorney General shall enforce the law.

 PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

New bill.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

None to the state.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect 180 days after it shall have become a law.