[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 121 (Friday, June 22, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29102-29103]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-13388]


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CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION

[Docket No. CPSC-2017-0027]


Recall Effectiveness: Announcement of Request for Information 
Regarding the Use of Direct Notice and Targeted Notices During Recalls

AGENCY: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

ACTION: Notice of request for information.

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SUMMARY: To advance the concepts discussed during the U.S. Consumer 
Product Safety Commission's (CPSC) Recall Effectiveness Workshop in 
2017, the CPSC announces a Request for Information (RFI) from 
stakeholders to provide information critical to future work on Recall 
Effectiveness. CPSC asks for responses on a series of questions 
addressing direct notice and other forms of customer notice. The 
information provided will help inform CPSC's efforts to continue 
improving the effectiveness of recalls.

DATES: Submit comments by September 5, 2018.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by Docket No. CPSC-2017-
0027, by any of the following methods:
    Electronic Submissions: Submit electronic comments to the Federal 
eRulemaking Portal at: www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for 
submitting comments. The Commission does not accept comments submitted 
by electronic mail (email), except through www.regulations.gov. The 
Commission encourages you to submit electronic comments by using the 
Federal eRulemaking Portal, as described above; however, please do not 
use this method if you are submitting confidential business information 
or other sensitive information that should not be made public.
    Written Submissions: Submit written submissions by mail/hand 
delivery/courier to: Office of the Secretary, Consumer Product Safety 
Commission, Room 820, 4330 East West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814; 
telephone (301) 504-7923.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name 
and docket number for this notice. All comments received may be posted 
without change, including any personal identifiers, contact 
information, or other personal information provided, to: 
www.regulations.gov. If you submit confidential business information, 
trade secret information, or other sensitive or protected information 
that you do not want to be available to the public, do not submit it 
electronically, but send it in hard copy to the Office of the Secretary 
at the address indicated above. See also section III, below.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to: www.regulations.gov, and insert the docket 
number CPSC-2017-0027, into the ``Search'' box, and follow the prompts.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joseph F. Williams, Compliance 
Officer, the Office of Compliance and Field Operations, U.S. Consumer 
Product Safety Commission, 4330 East-West Hwy., Bethesda, MD 20814; 
telephone: 301-504-7585; email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

A. Recall Effectiveness Workshop

    On July 25, 2017, the CPSC hosted a Recall Effectiveness Workshop. 
The goal of the workshop was to explore and develop proactive measures 
that CPSC and stakeholders can undertake to improve recall 
effectiveness. Seventy-nine external stakeholders attended the 
workshop, including various retailers, manufacturers, law firms, 
consumer interest groups, third party recall contractors and 
consultants, testing laboratories, and other interested parties. CPSC 
staff facilitated an open discussion among these participants about 
ways to increase recall effectiveness and also gathered feedback on how 
CPSC can potentially improve its recall efforts. Additional details may 
be found here: https://www.cpsc.gov/Recall-Effectiveness.

B. Recall Effectiveness Report

    Following the workshop, CPSC staff prepared a report, which was 
released on February 22, 2018. The report stated that the CPSC staff 
intends to prioritize stakeholders' suggestions to:
     Collaborate on ways to improve direct notice to consumers; 
and
     collaborate with firms to explore how technology can be 
used to enhance recall response.
    The report explained the reason for this focus:
    ``Direct notice recalls have proven to be the most effective 
recalls. We intend to work with consumer and industry stakeholders on 
registration methods or other improvements (e.g., retailer opt-in at 
checkout, home voice assistants, photo texting, QR codes, and 
incentives for product registration) to promote direct notice 
recalls.''
    ``We will continue to explore how technology can be used to enhance 
recall response in appropriate cases, including enhancing firms' recall 
marketing strategies, use of social media, and improved methods for in-
store communication. We intend to identify and share examples of future 
recall marketing strategies that are innovative and/or successful.''
    The full Recall Effectiveness Report may be found here: https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/Recall_Effectiveness_Workshop_Report-2018.pdf?R1VyLltrl8M_id.2vkAklHoUZjaSCab.

[[Page 29103]]

II. Information Requested

    The CPSC seeks information on current methods and systems that 
recalling firms use to assist in providing direct notice to consumers. 
The CPSC also requests certain information regarding the use of 
targeted notices to reach consumers who may have purchased a recalled 
product.

A. Direct Notice

    1. What methods are available for directly notifying consumers of 
recalls (e.g., mail, email, text)?
    2. If you use direct notice for recalls, what response rates do you 
achieve? Do the response rates differ significantly for different 
recalls? If so, what factors appear to influence the response rates? Do 
you follow up with additional direct notice if a customer does not 
respond? How often? For how long?
    3. Do other companies or your company use all available direct 
notice methods during every product recall? If not, why not?
    4. Do e-commerce retailers/third party platforms use direct notice 
capabilities for every recall of products sold through their site/
platform? If not, why not?
    5. What costs are associated with direct notice? How do costs vary 
for different forms of notice? What other factors affect cost?
    6. What challenges and barriers prevent companies from pursuing or 
improving direct notice? Please address:

a. Legal barriers
b. Technological challenges
c. Privacy challenges
d. Security challenges
e. Cost challenges
f. Other challenges

    7. What technologies exist or are being developed that would assist 
a recalling company to acquire direct contact information or 
capabilities to contact purchasers and/or issue direct notice for 
recalls?
    8. What methods do you use to collect direct contact information at 
the point of sale?
    9. Does your attempt to collect direct contact information depend 
on the item(s) purchased? Is the cost of the item at all relevant?
    10. Have you worked with a third-party entity (e.g., credit card or 
payment processing companies, product registries, data collection 
platforms, online retailers) to identify or contact consumers who 
previously purchased a product subject to a recall? If so, how, and 
with what types of companies did you work?
    11. For retailers that have information on their customers (e.g., 
retail credit/debit cards, loyalty program, membership registration), 
can such information be accessed through purchase data to provide 
direct notice?
    12. What would make direct notice more effective (e.g., notice 
type, number of touches)?
    13. How can the CPSC help facilitate direct notice to consumers?
    14. What can we learn from marketing efforts (e.g., needed 
resources, personnel qualifications, channels of communication, 
evaluating messaging effectiveness, etc.) to better reach consumers for 
recall purposes?

B. Product Registration

    1. What product registration methods are used today to collect 
consumer information and track purchased/registered products?
    2. Why do companies offer product registration? Are product 
registration programs due to mandatory requirements by CPSC or other 
agencies, or for other reasons?
    3. What are participation rates in product registration? Do you see 
significant differences in the registration rates for different types 
of products?
    4. What type of information is collected during product 
registration?
    5. Is product registration more or less successful if marketing 
information is not collected at the same time? Why?
    6. What methods are in use or are being developed to increase 
responses to product registration (e.g., warranties, incentives, voice 
assistant technology)?
    7. When does the personal information collected for product 
registration get used for marketing purposes?
    a. Are opt-in/opt-out choices provided to consumers for marketing? 
Describe.
    8. What technologies exist or are being developed to advance 
product registration?
    9. What would make product registration more effective?
    10. How can the CPSC help facilitate or improve product 
registration rates?
    11. Has the ability to register a product online or electronically 
had an effect on the volume of consumer response to product 
registration?

C. Targeted Notice

    A targeted notice is a notice aimed at a particular group of likely 
affected consumers, but not at a known purchaser or consumer like 
direct notice (e.g., targeted search engine ads, paid social media, 
micro marketing, such as internet radio and targeted use of voice 
assistant technologies).
    1. Have you used any of the targeted methods listed above or others 
to reach consumers? What success have you seen?
    2. Do companies use the information previously collected to assist 
in issuing targeted recall notices when announcing recalls?
    3. What costs are generally associated with targeted methods, 
including targeted search engine ads, paid social media, micro 
marketing, such as internet radio, and voice assistant technologies?
    4. What challenges and barriers prevent companies from pursuing 
targeted notices for recalls? Please address:

a. Legal barriers
b. Technological challenges
c. Privacy challenges
d. Security challenges
e. Cost challenges
f. Other challenges

    5. What technologies exist or are being developed that can improve 
the effectiveness of targeted notice?
    6. How can the CPSC help facilitate new or improved targeted recall 
notice campaigns?
    7. Are there other forms of recall notice that are worth exploring 
for more discussion?

D. For Consumers and Other Stakeholders

    1. Would you be interested in working directly with the CPSC to 
explore best practices for implementing product registration, improving 
current direct notice capabilities, or developing targeted notices?
    2. Are there data showing what forms, types, and frequency of 
messaging consumers are most likely to respond to in direct and 
targeted notices?
    3. How can companies incentivize consumers to register their 
products or to provide the information needed for direct notice in the 
event of a recall?
    4. What concerns do consumers have regarding the use of their 
personal information for recall notification purposes? What can firms 
do to overcome these concerns?

III. Confidentiality

    All data submitted is subject to Section 6 of the Consumer Product 
Safety Act (15 U.S.C. Section 2055) and may be considered confidential, 
except to the extent otherwise provided by law. Please identify any 
portion of your submission that you believe is confidential.

Alberta E. Mills,
Secretary, Consumer Product Safety Commission.
[FR Doc. 2018-13388 Filed 6-21-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6355-01-P