Compliance Verification Project 2022-2023: Decorative Lighting Strings

Consumer Product Enforcement Summary Report

Fiscal Year 2022-2023

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 of decorative lighting strings with the performance criteria of a consensus-based safety standard in order to verify compliance to the CCPSA. Health Canada has determined that certain decorative lighting string products that do not conform to the applicable safety standard CSA C22.2 NO. 37-17 – Decorative Lighting Products, or the equivalent, likely pose a danger to human health or safety. The CCPSA paragraph 7(a) prohibits any person from manufacturing, importing, advertising or selling a consumer product that is a danger to human health or safety. In addition, CCPSA paragraph 8(a) states that no person shall advertise or sell a consumer product that they know is a danger to human health or safety.

For this project, compliance to the CCPSA of select decorative lighting strings was determined through a sampling and testing process by which Health Canada inspectors sampled relevant products from establishments either in-person or online. Compliance with the requirements, which are based on the standard, was then verified through testing at the Product Safety Laboratory.

Prior to initiating this CV project, the CPSP carried out a market survey to determine the presence of decorative lighting strings retailers, importers and distributors in Canada. Targets were then selected from that list of establishments.

Over the course of the 2022-2023 fiscal year, mechanical, flammability and electrical testing of 18 different products was carried out. The testing resulted in 3 recalls and 1 stop sale. There were 14 instances in which no corrective action was required.

All 18 products included in this CV project originated from outside of Canada.

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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