The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Group raps companies over lack of online recall notice
Companies, however, are not required to tell the public about a recall.
Many child-product companies are not doing enough online to warn consumers about potentially dangerous products recalled in coordination with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, according to a new survey by the advocacy group Kids in Danger.
The group found that only 65% of the 117 companies that had a child product recalled in the past two years posted the recall details on their corporate websites. Just over half of the companies posted a recall on their Facebook pages. Less than half tweeted about a recall.
But the worst performance came on Instagram, where less than 20% of companies warned consumers about a recall.
“This is just such a simple thing and companies don’t do it,” said Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids in Danger.
Companies are not required to promote or tell the public about a product recall.
They need to provide only a remedy and a way for consumers to contact them. The CPSC lists recalls on its website. But that limits a recall’s effectiveness, Cowles said.
Kids in Danger said it wants the CPSC to require companies to publish recall notices on their websites and social media platforms, “rather than requiring customers to search for recalls on their own volition.”
That could boost awareness of recalls like the one last year for Jane Muum strollers, which violated federal safety standards. The company didn’t mention the recall to its nearly 100,000 followers on social media, according to Kids in Danger.
When Fisher-Price earlier this year recalled 4.7 million Rock ‘n Play inclined sleepers after a string of infant deaths, the company alerted its 6.7 million followers on Twitter and Facebook, but not its nearly 540,000 followers on Instagram.