Overview

TIA and its members shape the industry’s positions on key legislation; represent those positions to lawmakers, and work directly with regulatory bodies to help assure the reasonable implementation of new laws. Learn more about key issues of interest to the toy industry:

Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)

TIA has compiled several resources to help companies understand, implement and comply with the requirements of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA).

The Law

Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Resources

TIA Resources

  • TIA Issue Briefs (Members-Only; ID and Password Required)
    Issue Briefs are an introductory overview of the legislation for the convenience of Association members and other toy industry stakeholders, and are not an authoritative account or interpretation of the Act or its Amendment; consult with expert counsel regarding its application to your products and operations.

  • TIA Members Only Bulletins (Members-Only; ID and Password Required)
    Bulletins provide an outline of major points addressed in or mandated by recently announced rules. CPSIA-related issues can be found in the Legislative and Safety Bulletins.

  • TIA Legal Counsel Contact List (Members-Only; ID and Password Required)
    Given the complexity of the CPSIA legislation and the variation in products and companies, TIA recommends that toy companies consider retaining legal counsel to help in compliance with the legislation. For TIA member convenience, we have assembled a list of lawyers with experience in consumer product safety issues and the CPSIA.

TIA Knowledge Network

  • Webinars

  • Toy Safety Compliance
    This annual seminar, held in conjunction with Toy Fair, is an opportunity for members of the toy industry to hear news and developments related to toy safety laws and other recent legislative and regulatory activities, trends and emerging issues.

Toxic Substances and Control Act (TSCA)

The Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 is a federal statute that governs the manufacture of chemicals and provides a variety of control methods to prevent chemicals from posing unreasonable risk.  The law granted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) authority to create a regulatory framework to collect data on chemicals in order to evaluate, assess, mitigate, and control risks that may be posed by their manufacture, processing, and use.

The Law

Overview / Status

In recent years, Congress has considered chemical regulation and TSCA reform:

  • The Obama Administration has called for Congress to revamp TSCA and laid out concepts for reform.
  • Several major chemical and other industry trade organizations support modernization and have endorsed certain concepts.
  • Numerous environmental and health groups, as well as state legislators, are calling for revision of TSCA.

However, several states are at various stages of implementing chemical reporting or ban bills, citing a lack of confidence that Congress will effectively address chemical reform on the federal level as the reason for needing state action.

In July 2012, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed an amended version of the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) along party lines. The Safe Chemicals Act would require chemical companies to provide more health and safety information about their products while giving regulators more authority to take chemical substances off the market. Issues raised by industry groups regarding the proposed revision include: how EPA will evaluate data, how they will prioritize chemicals, and the need for preemption of state chemical regulation efforts – have been identified and are being advocated to key Senate policymakers.

TSCA reform is expected to continue into 2013.

TIA Issue Brief

NOTE:  The following TIA Issue Brief is provided as an overview of the legislation for the convenience of Association members and other toy industry stakeholders.  Please consider this information as an introduction to a complex issue.

TIA Issue Brief: TSCA Reform – January 2013 (Members Only)

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)

TIA has compiled several resources to help companies understand, implement and comply with the requirements of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA).

The Law

Overview

The primary goal of COPPA is to give parents control over what information can be collect from their children online. Every website designed for kids, or any website geared to a general audience that collects information from someone that is under 13, must comply with COPPA’s main requirements:

  • Post a privacy policy on the homepage of the website and link to the privacy policy everywhere personal information is collected.
  • Provide notice to parents about the site’s information collection practices and, with some exceptions, get verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children.
  • Give parents the choice to consent to the collection and use of a child’s personal information for internal use by the website, and give them the chance to choose not to have that personal information disclosed to third parties.
  • Provide parents with access to their child’s information, and the opportunity to delete the information and opt out of the future collection or use of the information.
  • Not condition a child’s participation in an activity on the disclosure of more personal information than is reasonably necessary for the activity.
  • Maintain the confidentiality, security and integrity of the personal information collected from children.

Updates to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule

In December 2012, the Federal Trade Commission completed an update of the implementing regulations regarding COPPA (the ‘COPPA Rule’). The amendments, which go into effect on July 1, 2013:

  • modify the list of “personal information”  that cannot be collected without parental notice and consent, clarifying that this category includes geolocation information, photographs, and videos;
  • offer companies a streamlined, voluntary and transparent approval process for new ways of getting parental consent;
  • close a loophole that allowed kid-directed apps and websites to permit third parties to collect personal information from children through plug-ins without parental notice and consent;
  • extend coverage in some of those cases so that the third parties doing the additional collection also have to comply with COPPA;
  • extend the COPPA Rule to cover persistent identifiers that can recognize users over time and across different websites or online services, such as IP addresses and mobile device IDs;
  • strengthen data security protections by requiring that covered website operators and online service providers take reasonable steps to release children’s personal information only to companies that are capable of keeping it secure and confidential;
  • require that covered website operators adopt reasonable procedures for data retention and deletion; and
  • strengthen the FTC’s oversight of self-regulatory safe harbor programs.

The new Rule incorporates many of the recommendations submitted by TIA during the review process. For more information, please see:

State Laws

No negative legislation has passed in 2012 that directly targets toys or children’s products. Nearly all (46) state legislatures are/have been in session; TIA is tracking/has tracked 160 priority bills on key issues across 30 states and continues to take appropriate action to prevent negative impacts on the toy industry. Current advocacy programs are especially active in California, Washington State, and Maine.

TIA members and staff utilize the premier state legislative, regulatory and government information monitoring service to track and analyze legislation and regulations throughout North America.


Resources