For Immediate Release
Contact:  Scott Vinson  (202) 661-3059
vinsons@nrf.com

NCCR Opposes Proposed Rule on Registration Cards 

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 1, 2001 – The National Council of Chain Restaurants (NCCR) today filed formal comments with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in opposition to a proposal that would require all retailers, including restaurants, to issue and collect product registration cards for all consumer products intended for use by children. 

            The Consumer Federation of America submitted a petition to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in June proposing that retailers be required to issue product registration cards with all products “intended for children.”  Under the proposal, retailers would be required to collect the names and addresses of customers and maintain the information for as long as 20 years, to be used in the event that a product is recalled.  Retailers would bear expenses involved, ranging from printing and inserting the cards into products to the postage for mailing them in and the data-entry labor and facilities to maintain the records. 

            “Chain restaurants frequently engage in promotional activities, which involve both product giveaways and very low priced product sales of items intended for children,” NCCR President Terrie M. Dort said.  “It is absurd to expect that a parent of a child who has received a small toy or promotional item included with a restaurant meal would expend time and effort to fill out a product registration card for such a small item.  The existing system of product recalls for giveaway and low priced items has worked extremely well, and this regulation is unnecessary.” 

            NCCR highlighted the following points in official comments submitted today:

·        The likely return rate of product registration cards for low priced and promotional giveaway items would be extremely low.

·        The useful life of most products intended for children is short.

·        Existing safety recall procedures for low priced and promotional giveaway items are highly effective.

·        The benefits of the proposed product registration rule for these types of products would be extremely limited.

·        The Consumer Product Safety Commission should consider an exemption for low priced items and promotional giveaways from the proposed product registration regulation. 

The National Council of Chain Restaurants is a national trade association representing forty of the nation’s largest multi-unit, multi-state chain restaurant companies.  These forty companies own and operate more than 50,000 restaurant facilities.  Additionally, through franchise and licensing agreements, another 70,000 facilities are operated under their trademarks.  In the aggregate, NCCR’s member companies and their franchisees employ more than 2.8 million Americans. 

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