Article

2007-11-21 -Lurid Crime Tales-

California filed lawsuit against 20 companies who sold toys containing lead.

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Delphi 2007-11-21 12:30|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 While the "knowingly" part of this may be difficult to prove, one can only hope that such legal difficulties might learn these greedy corporations to finally get off of Uncle Mao's all-you-can-suck cheap labor tit.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-11-21 14:54|| 2007-11-21 14:54|| Front Page Top

#2 I don't know about the retailers' liability, but as one that lives in the QA and ISO world, the root cause of this looks like lax oversight of the vendors. And the manufacturere are going to have a hard time proving that they were unaware without exposing themselves to negligence, since knowledge of "...applicable statutory and regulatory" rules is a standard clause in any contract i have ever reviewed, as well as a requirement for ISO 9001 certification.
Expect there to be a full court press to shuffle the blame to China.

Posted by USN,Ret. 2007-11-21 15:58|| 2007-11-21 15:58|| Front Page Top

#3 Money, Money, Money Money, Money, Money Money, Money, Money. Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme,gimme.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2007-11-21 16:43|| 2007-11-21 16:43|| Front Page Top

#4 I'm sure the bean counters included this in the cost savings when they did the analysis of moving the manufacturing function to China. /sarcasm off.

See, it's not just socialist who miscalculate the total costs of doing something. The difference is that companies and shareholders take the hit, not just an entire friggin country.

Posted by Procopius2k 2007-11-21 16:45|| 2007-11-21 16:45|| Front Page Top

#5 the manufacturere are going to have a hard time proving that they were unaware without exposing themselves to negligence

Agreed, USN,Ret., the actual manufacturers could not possibly have been unaware regarding China's lengthy history of lead contaminated products specifically and poor oversight of or intentional lapses with respect to quality control in general. China's well-publicized and endemic corruption literally guarantees all of these problems.

The few bright spots in all of this will be that any domestic toy manufacturers who actually try and recover any monetary compensation from the mainland will be given the bum's rush while China's reputation will continue to be blackened by ongoing coverage of this lawsuit. Finally, American-based toy manufacturers are seeing a real surge in demand from wary consumers who are tired of worrying about their kids being poisoned by shoddily produced goods.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-11-21 17:46|| 2007-11-21 17:46|| Front Page Top

#6 It depends. Some of the reports had the Chinese companies deliberately falsifying test results, never running the tests at all, or choosing their ingredient replacements with an eye toward passing tests for quality rather than raw material. Out in the real world, after all, companies comply with raw material stipulations and manufacturing protocols. The question generally whether they can stay within tight specifications, not whether they are making something else.

Posted by trailing wife in Buffalo for Thanksgiving 2007-11-21 20:16|| 2007-11-21 20:16|| Front Page Top

23:59 Mike N.
23:37 Woozle Grereck5422
22:59 Zenster
22:26 trailing wife in Buffalo for Thanksgiving
22:25 crosspatch
22:21 trailing wife in Buffalo for Thanksgiving
22:16 WTF
22:09 trailing wife in Buffalo for Thanksgiving
21:58 Deacon Blues
21:55 Deacon Blues
21:54 Frank G
21:51 Deacon Blues
21:47 Frank G
21:46 KBK
21:45 Eric Jablow
21:39 newc
21:31 gorb
21:26 gorb
21:22 Frank G
21:08 Chuck Simmins
21:06 Alaska Paul
21:01 Frank G
20:59 JohnQC
20:54 Frank G