Vitamin Retailer Magazine spoke with Steve Mister, president and CEO of the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), in Washington, D.C., www.crnusa.org, and asked him the following question:
VR: What should and can the industry do to combat bills that purport to be pro-consumer but are, in fact, anti-consumer, anti-retailer and are designed, it seems, to invite hundreds of frivolous class-action lawsuits.
Mister: The legislation introduced year after year in New York, Massachusetts, and more recently California, is anti-consumer and anti-retailer.
Policing these products by putting them behind the counter of reputable retailers offers no real solution to the problem sponsors of the bill are seeking to solve; these products are not the cause of eating disorders or body dysmorphia.
Although these bills are presumably well intentioned, they would have significant negative impacts on consumers of all ages and limit access to safe and beneficial products without any scientific or legal basis to do so.
The bills take away the consumer’s ability to shop for products in the supplement aisle, review labels side by side, and make independent purchasing decisions.
At the same time, these bills would place unreasonable compliance and economic burdens on retailers that increases their legal exposure, dissuading them from selling these products at all.
To combat this series of legislation, CRN has engaged in grassroots activities, dialogued with local retailers in those states impacted by the bills, conducted bipartisan outreach to legislators, and engaged on-the ground lobbyists to help convey [our] concerns.
