News
EMA, MESA Briefs Gaming Industry On CPSIA
16 Sep, 2009 By: Chris TribbeyThe Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) and the Media & Entertainment Services Alliance (MESA) briefed replicators and gaming disc companies Sept. 16 on what they need to be prepared for under new testing and tracking requirements in the federal Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA).
The CPSIA requires any consumer product considered a “children's product” to undergo significant testing for lead, any consumer product considered a “children’s toy” to undergo testing industrial compounds called phthalates, and any “children's product” to include permanent tracking labels. Both the movie and gaming industries have expressed the opinion that their products rated for children do not fall under the broad scope of the law.
DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group and EMA have asked the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for an exemption for physical media such as CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, specifically for phthalates. And tests from Cinram, Arvato Digital Services, Technicolor and The Walt Disney Co. have shown neither lead nor phthalates appear in significant levels in home entertainment products.
But unless the CPSC grants an exemption, new, third-party testing will likely have to be carried out regularly, starting in February, on any media on any media primarily intended for children or that is deemed to be a children’s toy.
Kenny Aldridge, corporate compliance officer for Cinram International, said everyone is preparing for the new law to affect the home entertainment industry, just in case. He said Cinram will produce certificates to retailers quarterly, as required by the CPSIA, showing the testing has been done. After 2011, Cinram plans to test and issue new certificates annually. The replicator is also putting a proprietary alpha-numeric series of characters on the inner band of master discs to comply with the tracking portion of the CPSIA.
He said that testing times for replicators are a week to two weeks for regular product, not including product that may include non-standard items, such as actual toys.
“There’s strength in numbers,” he said, referring to replicators banding together to seek a lower price from third-party testers. He said that for discs and cases, which are counted as separate items, testing can be $100-$500 per batch.
A CPSC spokeswoman has told Home Media Magazine previously that she did not believe home entertainment would fall under the CPSIA’s provisions. However, Sean Bersell, VP of public affairs for the EMA, said, “there’s a lot of uncertainty out there.”
“As the CPSC starts to provide more guidance … some of these issues will resolve themselves,” he said.