The United States is sending a strong message to importers through recent legislation as well as criminal charges against importers responsible for tainted products.

This past Thursday the U.S. Senate passed legislation that will:

1. Create a database that will aggregate customer complaints related to specific products and their respective manufacturers. This database will be made free to the public and collect information from consumers, hospitals and other sources related to any injuries, illnesses and deaths from products.
2. Double the Consumer Products Safety Commission’s budget and increase staff to 500 by 2013.
3. Raise the civil penalty cap per violation from US$8,000 to US$250,000 and for repeat violations from US$1.8 million to US$20 million.

You can review the bill in its entirety here.

On the same day, criminal charges were filed against Selective Imports Corporation for importing and distributing 90,000 tubes of toothpaste containing diethylene glycol (DEG), a chemical used in antifreeze and as a solvent. DEG causes kidney and liver damage.

Local wholesaler, Vernon Sales Inc., who bought the product from Selective Imports, was also charged with supplying local stores in Los Angeles with the product.

Vernon Sales President Kamyab Toofer, Vice President Pejman Mossay and the company itself each were charged with 14 criminal counts of receiving, selling and delivering an adulterated drug.

Selective Imports, its president, Frahad Nazarian and Vice President Yones Ghermezi each were charged with two criminal counts each of receiving, selling and delivering products containing DEG.

The misdemeanor charges were filed Monday, he said. Each count carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

All buyers, importers, wholesalers, distributors and retailers need to read the following quote:

The companies are liable for distributing the tainted product even if they had no direct knowledge of the risk because they were negligent in not ensuring the toothpaste was safe, Supervising Deputy City Attorney Jerry Baik said.

Recently, I wrote about the responsibility of quality control being with the buyer and this is an example of the penalties you can suffer.

We can never stress the importance of practicing safe sourcing and conducting due diligence enough. Also, you can always outsource quality control to third parties who specialize in factory audits/product inspections, like Bureau Veritas, for help.