US House of Representatives passes INFORM Consumers Act, AAFA lauds

This additional transparency will help combat the online sale of stolen, counterfeit and dangerous consumer products and enable consumers to contact and seek recourse from such sellers, energy and commerce committee chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. and consumer protection and commerce sub-committee chair Jan Schakowsky said in a joint statement.

The American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) commends the US House for passing the INFORM Consumers Act, which, it said, “promises to help to provide additional information to consumers and provide law enforcement with the vital enforcement tools needed to go after high-volume third-party criminal sellers, who offload illicit merchandise across e-commerce marketplaces.”

“We were pleased to see the House pass the INFORM Consumers Act, an important first step in the effort to keep counterfeits off of popular marketplaces and out of consumers homes," Steve Lamar, AAFA president and chief executive officer said.

Earlier this year, AAFA released the results of a study conducted with Intertek, a global total quality assurance provider, to test counterfeit products for a range of hazardous chemicals and heavy metals.

The study found that 36.2 per cent of the products tested failed to comply with US product safety standards, including dangerous levels of arsenic, cadmium, phthalates and lead.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)