The Consumer Product Safety Commission is holding two Web conferences to demonstrate to interested stakeholders various aspects of its new (and still controversial) consumer product safety information database.  The conferences will focus on the incident reporting form, industry registration and comment features, and the search function of the publicly available part of the database.

The first Web conference will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. today, January 11, 2011, and the second Web conference will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 20th. The first Web conference will focus on the incident form that the public will use to file a report of harm and the search function of the database. The Web conference is intended to inform all interested stakeholders of the information required on the form to be used to report an incident, in addition to an explanation of the public search function of the Database.  The second Web conference will focus on the industry registration and comment features, the process for reporting incidents, and the public search component of the database.  It will address how to access and use the new business portal, and how to register an account on the business portal, which is designed to facilitate more efficient electronic notice, review, and comment on reports of harm before they are published in the database.  The database is set to go live March 11 through the CPSC’s website.

As we have noted, the database raises a number of significant issues for our readers, as the CPSC will not be able to guarantee the accuracy of reports before it publishes them on the database, important confidentiality concerns may be compromised, and the data appears vulnerable to trolling and misuse by plaintiff lawyers.  Reports of harm will be published in the database 10 business days after the company has been provided notice of the report of harm. The CPSC has acknowledged that it will not be able to independently verify the accuracy of the information in the reports in that time, so  manufacturers will need to attempt to ask the CPSC to remove “materially inaccurate information” and “confidential information” in the report before it is published, or file comments about the report of harm to be published along with the report in the database.  As a practical matter, it may be difficult for a company to fully investigate the allegations in the report in that time frame. Moreover, any such investigation will likely not include an interview of the person who filed the report, because the person filing the report can choose to not release his or her name.

Reports may be filed not only by consumers but by health care workers, attorneys, and many others. Plaintiffs’ lawyers have an unhealthy incentive to seed the database with self serving reports, and, at the least, may search the database looking for products to go after.

Again, companies should register with the CPSC so that they can receive the most timely notice of a report filed about their products.  It may make sense to consider developing an SOP for reviewing and following up on reports in the database, including designation of a lead reviewer or team to follow through. This SOP may include a plan for quickly preparing the appropriate documentation that the company’s products are in fact reasonably safe, and for dealing with any adverse PR.