ALEXANDRIA, Va. — More than 10 major retailers, representing over $150 billion in chain drug sales, have joined the Certificate Exchange Network (CEN) offered by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and technology provider RollStream.

The CEN is an online network where retailers and manufacturers can securely post or link to existing product safety certificates to demonstrate compliance with the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA).

NACDS said the legislation has imposed new document sharing requirements for product safety testing certificates on certain consumer products. Products covered must have paper or electronic certificates of conformance that indicate they have been tested, do not exceed specific substance levels, and in some cases have been packaged following Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) guidelines.

NACDS noted that the affected products are wide-ranging and ultimately will include everything from toys to printer cartridges, bandages, over-the-counter medications and prescription medications.

"The Certificate Exchange Network can mean the difference between knowing where the most up-to-date certificates are located when they are needed, and not," commented Rick Cognetti, vice president of retail merchandising at Kinney Drugs.  "So working with Kinney Drug trading partners in the network to avoid governmental fines makes perfect sense."

On March 16, the CPSC voted to approve a final rule interpreting factors to be considered when seeking a civil penalty amount for knowing violations of CPSC laws. As a result of the CPSIA, NACDS explained, the maximum penalty for each violation of the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA), the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA), and Flammable Fabrics Act (FFA) increased from $8,000 to $100,000. Maximum penalty amounts for a related series of violations increased from $1.8 million to $15 million.

"Ensuring compliance with all regulatory requirements, particularly those relating to product safety, is critical to our business," stated Nancy Secours, senior director of supply chain operations at Pfizer.  "The zero-install and strong usability of the NACDS-backed solution made selecting the CEN the logical choice for us."

NACDS noted that it partnered with RollStream to make it easy for its members to directly post General Certificates of Conformity (GCCs) to the network or provide links to certificates stored on their web sites. Also, via the user-friendly browser interface, retailer members can securely download product certificates needed to demonstrate CPSIA compliance within seconds. This allows retailers and manufactures to significantly reduce their risk of non-compliance, the association added.

Retailers can register for the CPSIA Certificate Exchange Network at http://www.cpsiainfo.com.