A rash of stories about dangerous counterfeit toys has inspired Senator Bill Cassidy to co-author the SANTA Act, which demands online retailers detail exactly where children’s products come from.
Cassidy says the SANTA Act is about protecting children from toys not made by reputable toy manufacturers.
“Toys that are made by those, say in China, that imitate or counterfeit the reputable and they send it over here and it may, for example, explode in flames,” said Cassidy.
The Senator highlighted a recent incident from Wisconsin where a family bought a counterfeit hoverboard that exploded, putting a child in the hospital and burning down the family home.
Currently, online retailers only have to provide the name of their company, and little else, but Cassidy wants them to reveal more.
“We just want Amazon to require the company selling to mention where it is produced. Give details so that someone buying can know whether this is the real deal or a counterfeit,” says Cassidy.
Details required include full address, working phone number, email, whether the order is fulfilled from a warehouse different from the seller’s property, and more.
Cassidy says the aim is to protect children, but a side effect of passing the legislation would be to protect American workers.
“We also want to protect the American businesses producing these products, so that their intellectual property is not stolen, and with that theft, there go the jobs as well,” says Cassidy.
