Association Blog

A founder of Parents Against Tip-Overs pointed to common ground she shares with responsible furniture manufacturers and retailers during a congressional hearing June 13. “The compliant industry folks want a mandatory standard,” Crystal Ellis told members of the House Consumer Protection and Commerce subcommittee. “It’s something we agree on. We just want it tougher.” Ellis testified in support of the STURDY Act, introduced in April by the subcommittee chairwoman, Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois (photo above). The bill would direct the Consumer Products Safety Commission to set a mandatory safety standard for furniture stability – one that would be

The California Consumer Privacy Act is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, but legislators are still making changes that can affect Home Furnishings Association members in the Golden State. There’s positive movement on some fronts. AB 846, addressing customer loyalty programs, passed the Assembly by a vote of 50-1 on May 28. It would strike out a provision in the law that bars retailers from charging customers more if they ask to have their personal data deleted. Under the law’s definitions, that could apply to purchasing history or other information used in loyalty programs that reward regular customers with special

The Amazon marketplace is losing some of its attraction, Andrew Youderian, owner of the ecommerce community eCommerceFuel, recently reported, according to Forbes retail contributor Kiri Masters. Youderian conducts an annual survey of merchants and this year found “for the first time ever in our survey (that) non-Amazon sellers grew faster than Amazon sellers on average.” One reason why is the rapid change in online sales-tax collection requirements enacted by dozens of states since the 2018 South Dakota v. Wayfair Supreme Court ruling. ‘An unmitigated disaster’ “The sales tax situation in the United States right now is an unmitigated disaster,” Youderian