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Corporate responsibility and public safety "fall through the cracks" as SFCA claims no responsibility for recall of dangerous bassinets linked to death of two babies.
Just where is corporate responsibility for public safety?
In a move that threatens the health and safety of tens of thousands of babies in the U.S, and around the world, SFCA, Inc. is claiming they have no ‘legal’ responsibility to recall dangerously defective baby bassinets that were sold by Simplicity, Inc., prior to their purchase of the assets of the troubled company.
The bassinets have been linked to the strangulation death of two children thus far, and after 7 years of sales and profit, nearly one million defective and dangerous bassinets are in out in the market.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has tried to warn the public to stop using certain Simplicity brand bassinets, but they were forced to stop short of a full product recall, citing SFCA's lack of cooperation in the recall process. SFCA asserts that their purchase of Simplicity’s assets does not include any “legal" obligation to recall the bassinets.
It is the author’s opinion that SFCA has a corporate obligation to cooperate with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and all affected product retailers to get these dangerous and defective bassinets out of the hands of the consuming public. Regardless of the terms of the asset purchase of Simplicity in April by SFCA, it is clear that the assets SFCA now enjoys were directly derived from the sale of a defective product that SFCA now wishes to have no responsibility for.
The responsibility of a corporation to cooperate in product recalls should not be able to be legally “dropped between the cracks” of an asset purchase agreement between two companies. This clearly is against the public policy of providing safe products for the consuming public. How easy would it be for a company facing the costly task of a product recall (after profiting from the sales) to simply have its assets bought out by another company that chooses not to assume recall obligations on products sold by the prior company?
Some provision needs to be in place during the asset purchase arrangement to make sure that corporate responsibility remains intact for the benefit of the consuming public. Just my two cents.
Ralph Guito
For more information on the bassinet recall visit CPSC NEWS RELEASE: About 1 Million Simplicity Cribs Recalled Due To Failures Resulting in Infant Deaths
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