Four years after the Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play was recalled, and despite links to about 100 infant deaths, hundreds of the sleepers are offered for sale each month on Facebook Marketplace.
Today, the chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission demanded Facebook do more to keep the deadly product off its site.
In a letter sent to Facebook parent company Meta, CPSC Chairman Alexander Hoehn-Saric said he was troubled by the “persistent — illegal — sales” of the Rock ‘n Play. He said the agency found nearly 4,000 of the inclined sleepers on resale sites, mainly Facebook Marketplace, over a 13-month period starting in February 2022.
Hoehn-Saric said that even though Facebook quickly removes listings flagged by the CPSC, there is no way to know how many were missed or sold before the ads were taken down.
“If CPSC staff can identify these illegal listings using your site, Meta indisputably can prevent them from appearing in the first place,” Hoehn-Saric wrote to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “I urge you to do more to stop the illegal sale of recalled consumer products on your Marketplace to prevent additional infant deaths and injuries.”
In a similar letter sent to the CEO of Mattel, which owns Fisher-Price, Hoehn-Saric wrote that the company “clearly has not done enough to incentivize consumers to act upon the recall” and asked it to consider new approaches, including refunding the full purchase price of all Rock ‘n Plays.
A spokesperson for Mattel did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. Meta spokeswoman Ashley Settle, in a statement, acknowledged that, similar to other resale sites, “there are instances of people knowingly or unknowingly selling recalled goods on Marketplace.”
“We take this issue seriously,” she said, “and when we find listings that violate our rules, we remove them.”
Despite recall and repeated warnings, deaths continue
The CPSC and Fisher-Price first recalled 4.7 million Rock ‘n Plays in April 2019, saying there had been about 30 deaths linked to the product. About 70 additional deaths have been reported to the agency since then, including eight that occurred since the recall, according to the CPSC. In January, the agency issued a new warning about the product, again encouraging consumers to immediately stop using it.
Consumer Product Recalls:USA TODAY’s convenient database of recall data.
In his letters, Hoehn-Saric said the pace of listings for the Rock ‘n Play on resale sites does not appear to have slowed.
“The persistent secondary marketplace for Rock ‘n Play sleepers indicates that consumers either remain unaware that the Fisher Price Rock ‘n Play has been recalled or believe selling the recalled product on the secondary market is a better choice than acting on the recall remedy Fisher Price currently provides,” Hoehn-Saric wrote.
He noted that Rock ‘n Plays are listed online for about $25 on average, and consumers can sometimes make more by selling the product than they would by taking part in the recall. The recall only provides a refund for those who purchased the product on or after October 12, 2018. Those who purchased the item before that date receive a voucher for another Fisher-Price product.
“I urge you to announce the recall once again, but this time with a more robust remedy that creates a strong incentive for consumers to destroy the products and a marketing budget to ensure that consumers are aware of the recall incentive,” he wrote.
Facebook long urged to stop resale of recalled products
Facebook has for years faced criticism that it hasn’t done enough to hinder the sale of dangerous products. Members of Congress have repeatedly written the company demanding it to do more, and safety advocates have made similar pleas.
CPSC spokeswoman Pamela Springs told USA TODAY that the agency sent nearly 60,000 requests to online marketplaces to take down recalled products over roughly 13 months. More than three quarters of those requests went to Facebook, Springs said — an average of about 120 requests a day.
Of the 3,981 Rock ‘n Plays agency staff found over that period, she said, 93% were listed on Facebook.
A 2021 USA TODAY investigation found deadly recalled children’s products regularly changed hands through Facebook Marketplace even though technology such as photo or text recognition makes them easy to find and remove.
USA TODAY found listings for 14 recalled products that had contributed to the deaths of at least 121 children and hundreds more reports of incidents or serious injuries. Many were listed by their brand names. Dozens were later marked as sold. Reporters also were able to purchase recalled goods on Facebook Marketplace and create posts for recalled items as if they were for sale.
These products have killed kids: Yet they’re still for sale on Facebook Marketplace.
We found recalled products on Facebook: Here are 10 to watch out for.
Given new life on Facebook Marketplace, recalled products have gone on to harm, USA TODAY found. In July 2021, a 5-month-old girl smashed her head on a laminate floor after falling out of a recalled Bumbo baby seat purchased on Facebook Marketplace, according to a report to federal safety regulators. At least 112 children have been reportedly injured using those seats, including two dozen who suffered fractured skulls.
What has Facebook done to stop the sale of recalled items?
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 makes it illegal to sell a recalled product. But Justin “Gus” Hurwitz, a professor of law at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who focuses on regulation in the tech world, said that because Facebook is merely facilitating the sale, there is “no legal framework that would require Facebook to do anything about recalled products.”
“The issue here is that Facebook isn’t doing the sale,” Hurwitz said. “Facebook is only mediating the sales between buyer and seller.”
Facebook’s commerce policy states that it restricts the sale of recalled goods. A company spokeswoman in 2021 told USA TODAY that the company enforces the policy primarily through automated reviews, and occasionally manual checks, before a listing goes live.
Yet recalled items are still regularly listed for sale on the site.
Experts say Facebook could do much more, using a range of technologies similar to those it deploys to restrict the sale of firearms or drugs.
In his letter to Meta, Hoehn-Saric asked the company to take “immediate, meaningful steps” to prevent the sale of any recalled item, not just the Rock ‘n Play, on its site and suggested several steps the company could take including providing users with a way to flag listings for recalled and hazardous products. Users can currently flag listings for numerous reasons, including if the item is counterfeit, but there is no option to say that it has been recalled.
Why are Rock ‘n Plays and similar products so dangerous?
Hoehn-Saric said the CPSC found an average of 10 Rock ‘n Plays per day for sale on second-hand sites between Feb. 7, 2022 and March 7 this year. The product is dangerous for multiple reasons, including:
- Infants can roll from their backs to their stomachs while unrestrained in the Rock ‘n Play, leaving them at risk of suffocation.
- It places infants at a reclined 30-degree angle. A CPSC-commissioned study found an incline of greater than 10 degrees is unsafe for sleep because it increases the risk of suffocation. The CPSC and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that babies sleep on flat surfaces.
The CPSC has recalled a number of similar products and in 2021 approved a new federal safety standard for inclined sleepers. Last year President Biden signed the Safe Sleep for Babies Act, which outlaws the sale of crib bumpers and inclined sleepers.
What should I do if I have a Rock ‘n Play?
Rock ‘n Plays were sold by major retailers including Walmart, Target and Amazon from September 2009 through April 2019 for prices ranging from $40 to $149, according to the CPSC.
If you have one, stop using it immediately. You can receive either a refund or voucher for a different Fisher-Price item, depending on when you purchased it, by visiting service.mattel.com and clicking on “Recall and Safety Alerts.”
Tricia L. Nadolny is an investigative reporter at USA TODAY. She can be reached at tnadolny@usatoday.com or on Twitter at @TriciaNadolny.
