Eric Zeman / Android Authority
TL;DR
- The US Client Product Security Fee has issued a discover to Apple for violating Reese’s Legislation by promoting AirTags with out required warning labels in regards to the risks of button cell battery ingestion.
- In response, Apple has added a warning image contained in the battery compartment and up to date the packaging to incorporate the required security data.
- Reese’s Legislation, handed in 2022, requires warning labels on merchandise with button batteries to forestall youngsters from by chance swallowing them.
Apple is including a brand new, very essential warning label to AirTags, the coin-sized Bluetooth monitoring system that is one among Apple’s greatest sellers. Folks use it to trace the whole lot from baggage to pets, and a few even use it to maintain observe of their youngsters. Nonetheless, it’s not at all times secure to take action.
The US Client Product Security Fee (CPSC) issued a discover to Apple on January 2, 2025, alerting the corporate about lacking warning labels on AirTags. In keeping with the CPSC, Apple is in violation of Reese’s Legislation, which mandates warning labels on client merchandise with button cell or coin batteries to guard youngsters from the life-threatening dangers of ingestion.
“Apple’s AirTag, a preferred monitoring system, met the efficiency necessities for securing the AirTag’s lithium coin cell battery; nevertheless, the models imported after March 19, 2024, the efficient date of Reese’s Legislation, didn’t have the required on-product and on-box warnings regarding the extreme threat of harm from battery ingestion if these small batteries aren’t stored out of attain of youngsters,” the CPSC famous in a press launch.
Following the discover, Apple has now included a warning image contained in the AirTag’s battery compartment and altered its field to incorporate the required warning statements and symbols.
Nonetheless, since many AirTags have already been offered to shoppers with out the correct warning labels, Apple has up to date the directions that seem within the Discover My app every time a person is prompted to vary the AirTag battery. These directions now embrace a warning in regards to the hazards of button and coin cell batteries.
Reese’s Legislation was handed in 2022 in response to the tragic dying of Reese Henson, an 18-month-old little one who swallowed a button cell battery, resulting in extreme inner accidents and finally, her dying. Therefore, it’s greatest to keep away from attaching Bluetooth trackers to youngsters’s objects. Whereas they are often extremely helpful, their dimension makes them simple for teenagers to deal with, and there’s a threat they might by chance swallow them.