CPSC Gets it Right: Unanimously Regulates High-Powered Magnet Sets Through New Safety Standard

We do not typically take positions on product specific issues pending before the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission ("CPSC"), but the CPSC's new safety standard for magnet sets demonstrates both why the agency exists and how it can use its regulatory authority to protect consumers. In enacting the safety standard, the agency did not eradicate what are commonly referred to as "rare earth magnets" from the marketplace. Instead, the CPSC set a minimum level of safety for certain types of magnet sets based on the data necessary to take such action under the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA), the CPSC's organic statute.

The practical effect of the CPSC's action will be to prohibit the sale of magnet sets composed of small but very powerful magnets that have proven both extremely attractive and hazardous to children. Although these types of magnet sets were marketed to adults to manipulate into various shapes for entertainment or stress relief, the individual magnets