The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has reportedly started to produce documents to non-profit organization Cause of Action, which sued the agency in April 2014 to force the release of records it had sought under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) pertaining to the agency’s actions against the company that made Buckyballs®, high-power magnetic desk toys, and its CEO Craig Zucker. According to Cause of Action, its lawsuit “involves a FOIA request related to CPSC’s efforts, through heavyhanded regulatory overreach, to shut down a number of successful and responsible businesses, including one that was operated by Mr. Craig Zucker.”
Cause of Action has alleged that CPSC abruptly issued a preliminary determination that the company’s products were defective “without warning or evidence of a statistically significant number of injuries” and further asserted that the agency forced the company out of business. The organization’s attorney was quoted as saying, “Cause of Action is a transparency and accountability organization,” and its “set of questions and concerns about the Zucker litigation relate to the commission’s determination that it was appropriate to sue him individually. From a policy standpoint, an accountability standpoint, a transparency standpoint, we believe the circumstances of that determination are worth looking at.” See Bloomberg BNA Product Safety & Liability Reporter™, June 10, 2014.
