Law & Order

California Bill to Require Additional Labeling on Automotive Products Stalls as Legislature Adjourns

By SEMA Washington, D.C., Staff

Legislation to require manufacturers of designated consumer goods, including automotive products, to post ingredients on the product label and online on the manufacturer’s website died when the legislature adjourned for the year. It is eligible for consideration next year.

Under current California law, ingredients in automotive products are not required to be listed on product labels. As originally drafted, the bill would have made it a crime to manufacture, distribute and sell automotive products after January 1, 2017, that did not have a label listing ingredients and a manufacturer webpage address at which product-ingredient information could also be found. 

The bill required only the 20 most prevalent ingredients to be listed on the label, but all ingredients to be listed on the company’s website. The measure applied to all chemically formulated products for maintaining the appearance of a vehicle, including products for washing, waxing, polishing, cleaning or treating the exterior or interior surfaces of a vehicle, but excluding automotive paint and paint-repair products. 

SEMA believes that the bill poses an unnecessary burden on sellers of automotive products because the state’s Proposition 65 already requires warnings be included on certain consumer products containing more than trace amounts of harmful chemicals. 

For details, contact Ashley Ailsworth at ashleya@sema.org.