Comments on: Seller Beware: New Federal Program Allows for Casual Sellers to Be Fined for Up to $15 Million

By: Drew

Drew — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 03:15:58 +0000

It’s a child’s parent’s responsibility to protect their kids not anybody else’s you morons. If something is dangerous, then the kinds damn parent’s shouldn’t buy it for them.

By: tmaxPA

tmaxPA — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:05:54 +0000

Sounds to me like they’re closing a loophole that allowed professional resellers (not those selling personal items on the used market) to escape liability.

If this was pushed by the retail sales industry to “suppress competition”, then good for them. Allowing flea marketers and ebay sellers to benefit from selling recalled items isn’t just unfair to them, it is dangerous for the public.

And let’s not even discuss how important this change is in preventing unscrupulous businesses from quietly dumping their inventory on the resale market at the first hint of a safety issue. The used market for strollers and cribs is HUGE. You’d prefer an open season on infants? Perhaps maybe we should hold people accountable when they make a buck selling something, that they check the freely available resources to ensure they’re not endangering someone else’s child.

“If you are in the business of reselling products, you are expected to know the laws”

Nothing appears to indicate this includes any /casual/ sellers, let alone focuses on them. Do I have to go read the entire source article to understand why you think this would cover garage sales, Jonathan?

By: lottakatz

lottakatz — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:23:17 +0000

In my neck of the words there are a zillion ‘Dollar Tree’, Dollar Store’, and ‘Big Lot’ type stores, they buy overstock and buy heaps of cheap stuff from China and India. They are less expensive than WalMart and the other big box stores. Also, garage sales and flea markets are supposed to have a license but that doesn’t happen often I’m betting. The big boxes and the city (or county) is losing income.

MikeS is on the right track following the money IMO.

By: Slickone

Slickone — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:50:55 +0000

Can’t just throw it in the dump, profits to be made. See what happened to the infant formula in South America. It was deemed hazardous by the FDA and the rest of the story goes. Profits are to be made.

And by the way, some sellers on Ebay are not casual sellers anymore.

By: Former Federal LEO

Former Federal LEO — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:39:27 +0000

Good Afternoon Mike,

We need to recycle and such nonsensical programs scare or encourage people into just throwing things in the dump and be done with it.

By: Mike Spindell

Mike Spindell — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:33:33 +0000

FFLEO,
Bad decisions are often made with the best of intentions. In this instance the cynic in me wonders how much push for this regulation was made by the retail sales industry.

By: Former Federal LEO

Former Federal LEO — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:28:47 +0000

The government agents should instead investigate, at a cost of $1.35 billion, why in tarnashion there ever was a market for fleas…

By: Former Federal LEO

Former Federal LEO — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:24:32 +0000

The government I dedicated my life to is going completely insane…