We have now moved from the absurd to the surreal. An anonymous corporation has brought suit against the CPSC to keep an incident report in the CPSC database [1] confidential. Even without suits like this secret suit, the public does not have full access to the CSPC database: SaferProducts.gov. [2]
A report issued by the Government Accountability Office in October found that 5,464 complaints had been filed by consumers through SaferProducts.org as of July 7. Only 1,847 were published to the database; many reports weren’t published because they were deemed incomplete, or involved products or services outside the agency’s jurisdiction.
“Incomplete?” What does THAT mean? I’d sure like to know more about those rejected reports–two out of every three being filed–that are not being made public, and “trust us” doesn’t give me any confidence that they are being rejected for valid reasons. But it all got even more concerning when an anonymous corporation brought its sealed suit attempting to keep a CPSC complaint against it confidential.
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