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Product liability has created problems for manufacturers and product sellers for many decades. These problems have been exacerbated by the expansion of product liability laws throughout the world. In addition, there has been a proliferation of safety regulatory requirements, starting in the United States and then moving to the European Union. In addition, countries such as Japan, China, Australia, Canada, Brazil and South Africa have all recently established or strengthened their product safety regulatory regimes and requirements.

Most manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment have some sort of a regulatory compliance program. These may be part of the company’s internal procedures, a subscription to a compliance related database or various bits and pieces of information held by key people within the organization. No matter how complex or simple, it is imperative that management involved in global regulatory compliance issues have the right information needed to make their programs work efficiently.

There are numerous reasons for the use of an external test laboratory by organizations developing, manufacturing or marketing electric or electronic products. These reasons may include lack of or limited testing capability, scheduling conflicts within the organization, etc. Whatever the case may be, the proper selection of an external third party test laboratory is critical since the test results may be used to demonstrate product compliance or to verify changes to a product design.

Sensio Inc. of Montreal, Quebec (Canada) has recalled about 25,000 slow cooker home kitchen appliances manufactured in China.

The Commission of the European Union (EU) has published an updated list of standards that can be used to demonstrate conformity with the essential requirements of its directive relating to the safety of toys (88/378/EEC), the second such updated list in less than a month.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed forfeiture penalties against three Tier III wireless carriers in Texas and Oklahoma for failing to offer their customers the required number or percentage of hearing aid compatible (HAC) handsets.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released its most recent report on telephone subscriber levels in the United States.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture for $528,000 against an Oklahoma-based company for willful and repeated violations of the rules against the sending of unsolicited fax advertisements.