We would like to request that the State of Virginia rescind the sections in the Bedding regulations that require 1/8” type in the certification clause. We would also like to request that the “Date of Delivery” section of the law tag no longer be required by the State of Virginia.  The regulations concerning these sections have not been enforced in the past.  Maintaining these regulations now will result in a number of economic hardships for the bedding manufacturers and associated suppliers nationwide. 

The second issue is the “Date of Delivery” being required on the label.  In the 2015 ISPA Manual, and IABFLO label example contained in the manual, it is mentioned that a few states require “Date of Delivery” on the label, but they don’t enforce it. The reason being if the “Date of Delivery” does not have to be printed on that line, it is not even necessary to have it at all. This section dates back to when the clerk at the retail store would fill in the date the consumer receives the goods.  Therefore, after the 2015 manual was issued, we had several customers remove “Date of Delivery” from the label.  Now the new 2017 ISPA manual, the IABLFLO label contained in the manual indicates “Date of Delivery” is required to be listed on the label again.  In addition the “Date of Delivery” line is required to be in bold face type and caps and 1/8” font size.  

Since it is required that the certification clause be 1/8” type, and “Date of Delivery” be 1/8” type and bold face, maintenance of these requirements by the State of VA will result in all United States law tags changing.  These changes if maintained would impact hundreds of thousands of labels nationwide.  In most cases, it will cost $25.00 or more to change and re-plate each label.  These changes will involve thousands of man hours of work, which will require type-setting, proofing internally, proofing by the customer, and then replacement of existing plates.  It should also be noted that millions and millions of labels currently in the inventory of manufacturers are now obsolete.  By maintaining these requirements, we will have to increase the size of the labels, which will increase the cost of the labels.  This in turn will result in hundreds of thousands of dollars of additional costs for manufacturers.

Currently manufactures struggle constantly with very narrow profit margins and they are not in a position to pass along increased cost to the retailers, many of whom now are struggling themselves. Finally these regulations will not provide important information to the consumer, and they will not contribute to the consumer’s health and safety. It is for this reason and the reasons stated above, that we respectfully ask that these two sections of the bedding regulations be rescinded.

The International Sleep Products Association (ISPA) is the trade association for the mattress industry.  ISPA was founded over 100 years ago to promote consistent bedding laws in states and the accurate disclosure of the materials used in mattresses. Our support for this issue was in part to combat unscrupulous parties whose deceptive practices were misleading and endangering consumers.  Unfortunately, these problems persist today which is why ISPA supports state bedding laws and their enforcement.

ISPA and the mattress industry strongly support Virginia’s Bedding and Upholstered Furniture Law (VA Code § 32.1-212 - § 32.1-226) and the Regulations for Bedding and Upholstered Furniture Inspection Program (12VAC5-125).  

The law and regulations protect consumers’ public health and safety and promote welfare in several ways.  The requirement that used material be sanitized prior to reuse protects consumers from unsanitary used mattresses that may contain bed bugs, allergens such as dust mite feces, mold spores, and bodily fluids. The law and regulations also protect consumers by requiring the disclosure of whether a mattress is a new product or one that has previously used and whether it has been properly sanitized.

The law and regulations also minimize economic impact on small businesses by allowing reciprocity with other states that have similar bedding laws requiring registration and labeling.  Small businesses may register with Virginia and meet the requirements of other states by using one Virginia-compliant law label without having to register elsewhere.  Virginia also accepts registrations and labels from other states.  This saves money and compliance efforts and costs by eliminating the need to register in multiple jurisdictions.

Finally, the regulations are clearly written and well understood by the mattress industry as they follow similar regulations in other states.   However, a recent issue has caused confusion among the industry and we suggest it be clarified within the regulations.

Recently, a number of states with bedding laws decided to no longer require that “Date of Delivery” be included on the mattress label.  Although there is no specific provision to require “Date of Delivery” in the Virginia law or the regulations, the sample law labels included in section 12VAC5-125-90 shows a “Date of Delivery” line.   This has led to concern among the industry as Virginia has become on outlier and continued to enforce this requirement until recently.  This has added costs for many in the industry as they have had to alter their labels solely for Virginia for a requirement that does not provide any public health or welfare benefit to consumers.  In addition, “Date of Delivery” does not need to be disclosed to the consumer on the label as the purchase date already appears on the consumer’s receipt.  In order to clarify that “Date of Delivery” is not required, this text should be removed from the sample labels shown as Attachments 1, 2, 3 and 7 in section 12VAC5-125-90 and any reference to “Date of Delivery” should be deleted.

We continue to support Virginia’s efforts to promote consumers’ health and safety when purchasing and using mattresses.  Please contact me with any questions you may have.

Christopher B. Hudgins
Vice President, Government Relations and Policy
International Sleep Products Association

We are requesting the State of Virginia to repeal the two clauses in 12VAC5-125-90 that neither protect the consumer nor have a positive effect on public health, but only add cost and hurt profit margins at a time when both manufacturers and retailers are struggling:

• Date of Delivery

  • Because putting a date of sale on the label is not required and is no longer a practice carried out at retail, this requirement holds no purpose.

  • The 2015 IABFLO Labeling document omitted the DOD requirement, and at that time, Hollander, as did several other manufacturers, removed the DOD from our law labels.

  • To go to the extraordinary expense of changing the labels to add the DOD, for a reason that does nothing to protect or benefit the consumer, serves no purpose.

• 1/8” (3mm) Font Size on “Certification Clause”

  • Only one other state at this time has this requirement (and it is not enforced), so in the interest of having consistency in a law label that will be acceptable to all states, without adding unnecessary expense to the manufacturer for a regulation that serves no benefit to the consumer, we request that this be repealed.

Though Virginia has not been actively enforcing these two regulations, third party laboratories are now failing testing submitted by manufacturers because the regulations are still on the books and have been added to the most recent ISPA manual.

It is for these reasons, we are respectfully requesting repeal of the two regulations.