Legislation Would Aid Consumers in Holding Foreign Manufacturers Accountable for Chinese Drywall

Last week Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced the Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act of 2009 (S. 1606), legislation that will make it easier to hold foreign manufacturers accountable in the U.S. civil justice system, putting them on a level playing field with American manufacturers.

Currently, foreign manufacturers are able to skirt the law, exporting billions of dollars of their products to the U.S. without facing accountability for product defects that injure or kill Americans. One example is the 500 million pounds of drywall, made in China, which is plaguing homeowners throughout the country because of the sulfuric gases the drywall emits. Homeowners face multiple obstacles holding the Chinese manufacturers responsible for the destruction the drywall is causing.

The Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act of 2009 (S. 1606) does several things:

· Requires manufacturers to have an “agent” located in at least one state where the company does business that would accept service of process for any civil and regulatory claims.

· Companies would consent to state and federal jurisdiction, holding foreign manufacturers accountable to those judicial standards.

Currently, bringing a case against a foreign manufacturer requires servicing the company in their country, according to their rules of service. This often requires translating the papers into the language of the native country and tracking down the companies’ foreign address, adding additional time and expense to the legal process.

The legislation covers imported products regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), such as children’s toys; the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including prescription drugs and medical devices; and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), like pesticides.