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Patching the Holes in the Consumer Product Safety Net: Using State Unfair Practices Laws To Make Handguns and Other Consumer Goods Safer
Kaplan, Glenn Smith, Chris
Kaplan, Glenn
Smith, Chris
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Abstract
This Article critiques the current product safety regime in the United States and identifies a means for its immediate improvement. Under the present system, consumers are guarded against defective products by a two-tiered safety net, comprised of federal regulatory authority and state based tort law. However, both tiers of this safety net are flawed, and when these flaws overlap, consumers are exposed to serious dangers from defective products. Millions of consumer goods each year fall through these "holes" in the safety net, with poorly designed handguns being perhaps the best known example.