Chuck is an antitrust and regulatory lawyer who devotes a significant portion of his practice to assisting clients with consumer product safety and environmental regulations. He serves as general counsel to numerous trade associations. For the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, Chuck negotiated and drafted amendments to federal laws, including the Consumer Product Safety Act. Corporations in many industries, local governments, and state agencies are also on his client roster. He represents clients before a wide array of federal agencies, including the Consumer Product Safety Commission, state agencies, and international regulatory organizations.

Chuck is engaged in a federal and international regulatory and legislative practice. He has been extensively involved in product safety, environmental, tax, health care, technology, and energy issues, and public finance legislative and regulatory matters for a variety of trade associations, corporations, local governments, and state agencies.

His practice encompasses work before the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, Departments of State, Health and Human Services, Energy, and Treasury, US Trade Representative, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Trade Commission, the IRS, and other federal and state agencies. He also has extensive experience dealing with Canada, the European Commission, and international bodies.

Chuck also engages in trade association representation and antitrust counseling. As general counsel of the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, Chuck negotiated and drafted the amendments to the Consumer Product Safety Act and the National Appliance Energy Conservation Act, and represents the appliance industry at international bodies dealing with safety, energy, ozone depletion, and global warming.

Before joining Mintz, Chuck practiced regulatory law with a law firm in Chicago and then worked in the Executive Office of the President before entering private practice in Washington.

Filed an amicus brief in the Seventh Circuit on behalf of national trade associations in connection with an appeal from a lower court ruling certifying a national product liability class. Adopting arguments that we advanced on behalf of the amici, the Seventh Circuit reversed the lower court ruling and decertified the plaintiff class.

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2024 Pre-Election Analysis: Consumer Product Safety

September 24, 2024 | Advisory | By Christian Tamotsu Fjeld, R. Neal Martin, Charles Samuels

Read about how the upcoming November elections could shape consumer product safety laws and regulations, depending on the outcome of the presidential race and whether one party takes control of Congress.

May 15, 2024 | Alert | By R. Neal Martin, Charles Samuels, Matthew O. Page, Christie Martin, Meghan Burke, Poonam Patidar

Read about the Local Infrastructure Financing Tools (LIFT) Act, pending legislation that calls for policy changes and types of bonds that could be used by governments and nonprofits nationwide for a range of public infrastructure and capital improvement projects.

August 28, 2023 | Blog | By Charles Samuels, Evelyn French, Matthew Tikhonovsky

On February 9th, 2023, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) published a proposed rule, as required by Reese’s Law, for button cell and coin batteries and products sold with them. Manufacturers of affected products not currently in compliance with the PPPA requirement are immediately vulnerable, and manufacturers should also prepare for compliance with the forthcoming final rule.

January 9, 2023 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Charles Samuels, Evelyn French

Mintz Antitrust and Government Law attorneys examine an FTC proposed rule that would ban almost all non-compete provisions in employment relationships. They also discuss why employers should consider auditing non-compete policies and practices and exploring alternatives such as non-disclosure or customer non-solicitation agreements.

March 22, 2021 | Blog | By Charles Samuels, Evelyn French

The Administrative Procedure Act (the “APA”) requires federal agencies to take specific steps when creating new rules and regulations. As a federal agency, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (the “CPSC”) must follow these steps—referred to as “notice and comment rulemaking”—as well as comply with its statutory specific requirements—in order to put into place new product safety regulations.

February 16, 2021 | Blog | By Charles Samuels

In early January, after referral by the CPSC to the Department of Justice (and probably the subject of an Acting Chair Adler public comment), fire extinguisher manufacturer Kidde reached a settlement with the government to pay a $12 million civil penalty for underreporting to the CPSC the scope and nature of defect, failure to report timely, making misrepresentations to the CPSC, and misusing a registered safety certification mark. The civil penalty seems to have signaled the start of a more aggressive approach to CPSC enforcement.

December 9, 2020 | Blog | By Charles Samuels, Evelyn French

October 7, 2020 | Blog | By Charles Samuels, Evelyn French

May 26, 2020 | Blog | By Charles Samuels, Evelyn French, Evan Moore

October 8, 2018 | Blog | By Charles Samuels, Evelyn French

On Friday, October 5, 2018, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”) announced that Costco Wholesale, Corp. (Costco) entered into a settlement agreement with the CPSC to pay a $3.85 million civil penalty for its alleged failure to report defective trash cans. The penalty agreement was accepted 4-0 by the Commission. Notably, this is the first multi-million dollar civil penalty in the post-CPSIA era where there was not a Democratic majority at the CPSC, indicating that penalty actions are far from moribund under the current leadership.