Congress in action: Three years for "product tampering"

[Declan McCullagh]

Title: Crime Subcommittee Hearing Thursday
U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on the Judiciary
F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., Chairman

News Advisory
For immediate release Contact: Jeff Lungren/Terry Shawn
July 25, 2001 (202) 225-2492
Crime Subcommittee Holds Hearing and Markup Thursday
on Consumer Product Tampering Legislation
What: Legislative hearing and markup on H.R. 2621, the
"Consumer Product Protection Act of 2001"
Who: Subcommittee on Crime - Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chairman
When: 2:00 p.m. Thursday, July 26, 2001
Where: 2237 Rayburn House Office Building
Tracey Weaver was preparing her family a New Year's Eve dinner complete 
with dessert to be made from a box of cheesecake mix she had bought at the 
local market. When the box was opened, her husband found a coupon for a 
"Free Trip To Africa". It was really no coupon at all but a demand for all 
African- Americans to return to Africa and included racial slurs that 
understandably upset Mrs. Weaver's family. Under current law, tampering 
with a product's packaging is legal as long as the perpetrator does not 
cause the labeling to be false or misleading or adulterate the product. 
This legislation, H.R. 2621, would make tampering with a product's 
packaging a crime punishable by up to three years in jail.

Problems...
* Current consumer protection laws cover tampering which endangers the 
health or safety of consumers or renders the labeling of a product false or 
misleading.
* Tampering which does not taint or contaminate the contents or the 
labeling of a product is not covered under federal criminal law. However, 
such tampering harms both the consumer and the manufacturer.
* Package tampering has become more and more pervasive; Kraft Foods 
estimates that they have received nearly 100 complaints in the last five 
years but that many more cases are not reported to them.
This Legislation will...
* Make knowingly stamping, printing, placing or inserting writing in or on 
a consumer product prior to its sale a crime with penalties up three years 
imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $25,000 per offense.

Witnesses: Rep. Melissa Hart (R-PA), sponsor of H.R. 2621; William Macleod, 
Partner, Collier Shannon Scott, PLLC, on behalf of the Grocery 
Manufacturers of America; David Zlotnick, Professor, Roger Williams 
University; and Tracey Weaver, Victim, Leavenworth, Washington.
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Terry A. Shawn
Press Secretary
Committee on the Judiciary
202.225.2498