Compliance Verification Project 2021-2022: Electrical Extension Cords and Power Bars

Consumer Product Enforcement Summary Report

Fiscal Year 2021-2022

Summary

The Consumer Product Safety Program (CPSP) administers and enforces the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPSA) and its regulations.

The purpose of this Compliance Verification (CV) project was to verify industry's compliance through documentation review of electrical extension cords and power bars that have a recognized Canadian certification mark with the requirements of paragraph 9 (b) and section 10 of the CCPSA.

All electrical products that plug into an electrical outlet, including electrical extension cords and power bars, are required to be certified to the applicable Canadian national safety standard to comply with provincial and territorial legislation. That certification must be from an accredited certification body (CB) and the certified product must carry the recognized certification mark of that CB. Paragraph 9 (b) of the CCPSA prohibits the packaging or labelling of a consumer product in a manner that is false, misleading or deceptive regarding its certification related to its safety or its compliance with a safety standard or the regulations. Section 10 of the CCPSA prohibits the advertising or sale of a consumer product that is known to be advertised, packaged or labelled in a manner referred to in section 9. A product that is labelled with a recognized certification mark that is not supported by a review of certification documents obtained from the company or authorized by the certification body is deemed to be non-compliant with paragraph 9 (b) and potentially section 10.

For this project, compliance of select products to paragraph 9 (b) and section 10 of the CCPSA was determined through a sampling and evaluation process by which Health Canada inspectors sampled relevant products from establishments either in-person or online. Health Canada inspectors verified compliance to paragraph 9 (b) and section 10 of the CCPSA after visual inspection of the product for the presence of a recognized Canadian certification mark, reviewing certification documents provided by establishments, and verifying records either after review of the CB's product listing website or contacting the CB directly.

Prior to initiating inspections, the CPSP carried out a market survey to determine the presence of electrical extension cord and power bar retailers, importers and distributors in Canada. Targets were then selected from that list of establishments.

Over the course of the 2021 to 2022 fiscal year, evaluation of 50 different products was carried out. The evaluation resulted in 11 products that required further certification validation from the CB after inspectors identified inconsistencies on the CB website and/or from the certification documents provided by establishments. Of those 11 products:

• 7 products were confirmed by the CB as having valid certification.
• 1 product was determined to be non-compliant to paragraph 9 (b) of the CCPSA, misleading claims, due to being labelled as certified in Canada, yet only having certification for the United States. A voluntary commitment was obtained with the responsible establishment.
• 2 products were identified as having certification file clerical issues and were referred to the CB, non-compliance to paragraph 9 (b) or section 10 of CCPSA was not determined for these products.
• 1 product sampled online did not have a recognized certification mark upon delivery; however, the establishment provided certification documentation upon request and the CB confirmed the product as having authentic Canadian certification. For this product, non-compliance to paragraph 9 (b) or section 10 of CCPSA was not determined.

There were 46 instances in which no corrective action was required.

Results

Readers should consult the individual recall and safety notices, if applicable, for details of the products subject to this enforcement action.

Disclaimer: Inspectors apply a systematic bias during the selection of establishments and samples. Inspectors do not select products randomly; instead, they select the ones that are more likely not to meet health and safety requirements due to observed characteristics. Due to this biased nature of sampling and the fact that sample sizes within CV projects are very small, Health Canada does not consider the findings of CV projects to reflect overall market compliance, unless otherwise stated. Note that these summary reports relate only to the product(s) actually tested and the specific criteria measured in this project. Testing by Health Canada does not represent approval or endorsement of the product(s).

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