On Friday, President Obama signed in to law HR 2715, an amendment to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). Of particular interest to gamers, game manufacturers, and game retailers, provisions of the law:

  • Grant the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) the authority to exempt a product, class of product, material, or component part from the lead content standard if it is not likely to be placed in the mouth or ingested.
  • Exempt used children’s products from the lead content standard.
  • Apply testing requirements to representative samples instead of random samples.
  • Exempt books and ordinary paper-based printed products (such as magazines and posters) from third-party testing requirements.
  • Prohibit the CPSC from requiring third-party testing from “small batch manufacturers” until the CPSC has provided alternative testing requirements or an exemption for products of which 10,000 or fewer are made in a calendar year. A “small batch manufacturer” is defined as a manufacturer whose total gross sales in the previous calendar year was no more than $1 million. In devising alternative testing requirements, the CPSC must consider the economic and other limitations that small batch manufacturers face, and provide an exemption if no alternative testing requirements are available or economically practicable.

[via TIA]