My dear wife had her tablet open the other evening and commented to me about a minor furor in a local buy and sell group on Facebook. Someone in the group was trying to sell a child safety seat and was being badgered because it was against the law to sell car seats. I wondered what law made it illegal to sell child restraints because I had not heard of one before. Do your research was her response, you’ll be able to write an article about it.
My first stop in my quest ended up being a visit to Transport Canada’s web site where it stated that if you own a car seat or booster seat made before January 1, 2012, under Health Canada’s Canada Consumer Product Safety Act, you may not be able to advertise, sell, or give it away because it may not meet the latest requirements set out by Health Canada. So far, so good.
Next I found and read the applicable section under the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act. Section 6 says that no person shall manufacture, import, advertise or sell a consumer product that does not meet the requirements set out in the regulations. The definition of “sell” includes “distribute to one or more persons, whether or not the distribution is made for consideration” which makes giving it away illegal as well.
In an ideal world, we would all buy new child restraints and not consider a used one.
However, we don’t live in such a state and with a bit of care can still provide proper protection on a budget.